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...listed on Google under "stoned chick".

PARIS, FRANCE - An Apple director reiterated on Wednesday comments made earlier this year that the company has no plans to announce a Mac laptop powered by a G5 processor for some time, and that technical issues of putting the chip in a small PowerBook have not yet been overcome.

Tom Boger, director of Apple's worldwide product marketing, told The Mac Observer that consumers shouldn't expect the G5 in a portable for the forseeable future.

The new iMac G5 (desktop) is thin, but (the G5) is not thin enough for a laptop right now, Mr. Boger said. There are great challenges in putting a G5 processor in a laptop. The issues range from power to cooling and its overall size...You're not going to see a G5 in a laptop anytime soon.

The complete article

Could be wrong, of course (these could just be for eMacs and iBooks) but considering the G5's heat issues I wouldn't be surprised if there's going to be one more in-between model.

Well the bad guy on season 3 of 24 had an OQO

You've noticed the product placement that has been used in Hollywood where good guys use Macs and bad guys use PC's. Apparently it's really evident in "24".

Oh - incidentally, you may be able to resell aac's you bought from iTMS (but again ... it comes down to those tricky bastards in control of copyright law):

http://www.macobserver.com/article/2003/09/09.4.sh tml

http://news.com.com/2100-1027_3-5072842.html

to quote:
The text of the Microsoft EULA from Windows XP Service Pack 1 and 2000 Service Pack 3 reveals the offending material:

By using these features, you explicitly authorize Microsoft or its designated agent to access and utilize the necessary information for updating purposes. Microsoft may use this information solely to improve our products or to provide customized services or technologies to you. Microsoft may disclose this information to others, but not in a form that personally identifies you.

The OS Product or OS Components contain components that enable and facilitate the use of certain Internet-based services. You acknowledge and agree that Microsoft may automatically check the version of the OS Product and/or its components that you are utilizing and may provide upgrades or fixes to the OS Product that will be automatically downloaded to your computer.

In short, this agreement gives Microsoft permission to scan your hard drive for information, "fix" security holes or other bugs via updates to your system, and while the company is there, it would effectively have access to other data on the system, which is where the conflict comes in. Better yet, the company can even let "designated agents" do this, an even more nebulous term that leaves Windows users with even less control over who is accessing their system, and what they might do when there. All of this occurs without the user's permission.

Remember, these are the same people who faked a presentation in front of a Federal Justice and told him over and over it was fact....
IMHO, the EULA parts that I've seen are so vague Microsoft could collect anything they want without worrying about legal action against them. After all, they are masters of vague verbiage in license agreements, are they not?

LoB

Don't tell anybody, but this must actually break the iTunes DRM good and hard. CrossOverOffice almost certainly uses a standard Linux sound driver to get the sound data to the sound chip. This is bound to mean /dev/dsp, which is "hackable" in the sense that anyone with root access can snarf the digital audio data between when it gets decrypted by iTunes and when it gets sent to the sound chip.

open4free ©

here's what steve said in a press conference sometime ago http://www.macobserver.com/article/2004/04/29.9.sh tml

i'd say make yourself heard...

The problem with that analysis is that it's much too kind to the underdog operating systems.

I'm having a hard tiime finding good numbers, but it seems that Apple's market share has generally been in decline over the years, with most sources citing a market share or install base fluttering around three or four percent for the past couple of years, with some wildly optimistic speculation that Apple could hit eight percent by 2008.

In the most recent report I could find, Apple's market share was put at 3.7%, with recent quarter growth of 9.3% -- but this is in a market where Dell alone has a share of 32.9%, and the market overall grew by 10.9% in the USA and 15.5% globally. That is to say, even though Apple is "growing" relative to their own recent performance, they're still not growing at a rate that keeps up with the industry as a whole, and they're especially slipping behind global figures. Their market share trend is going down, even as their health as an individual company appears to be holding steady or improving.

Meanwhile, figures for Linux are harder to determine, but it seems that the past couple of years suggest that Linux has hovered at a steady 1%, so the picture isn't any stronger on that side -- they're doing at best 1/3 of what Apple is doing.

(And yes, market share figures are all voodoo that is about as reliable as hardware benchmarks (that is to say, hardly reliable at all), but still, the discussion doesn't work if you don't at least take a stab at quantifying things. So please, grant me some leeway here :-)

More to the point, it doesn't seem like Google has ever had a problem with catering to just the dominant platform. Consider the Google Toolbar, which has been available for years as an IE only plugin on Windows -- it has never been available for the Mac version of IE, and it has never been offered for other operating systems (they just meekly suggest putting links to Google in your Netscape bookmark bar, but that hardly counts for much). Admittedly, Mozilla has had third-party Google search plugins for a while now, and when Safari came out it had a built-in Google search box, but these were both provided by third-parties, not Google.

The only client-side software Google has offered in the past has been for Windows and IE, and the Picassa acquisition is just a continuation of this pattern.

I played around with Picassa for a little while last night, and it is a pretty slick application; I can see why they wanted it (the UI is quite clever, and they may want to put some of the people who thought it up to work on their existing web tools & webmail). I'd love to see a version of it for OSX (please, please something better than iPhoto), but I'm not convinced that that Google will bother porting it, based on the questionable market share trends and their past client-side offerings.

At the 28 April iTunes anniversary conference call, Arik Hesseldahl from Forbes asked Teh Steve about that.

Arik Hesseldahl: Had a small profit. OK. Any interest whatsoever, since in the open source OGG Vorbis format?

Steve Jobs: We're certainly not getting any requests from customers for it.

So, if support for that format is something that would make you buy and iPod, it might be a good idea to tell them!

Repeat it along with me, folks, "Apple is dying!" I'm sure netcraft will confirm it any day now....

Repeat it along with me, folks, "Apple is dying!" I'm sure netcraft will confirm it any day now....

Helpful tip: If you have a dead iPod, do the rebate offer, and sell the Jukebox on eBay.

And our PCs never seemed to get viruses, while our Macs were constantly being infected.

I actually do not doubt it, but I think it's attributable to Mac users being on the Internet before most PC users, and increasing their risk of infection in the mid-90's, especially at universities. Lab environments coupled with the Internet let viruses spread like wildfire.

When I spoke of frequency, I was referring to the amount of viruses made for PCs vs. Macs. As it stands now, I believe there's no more than a handful of Mac viruses, and all of them for classic, or are Word macros. Even in the early and mid-90's, the PC viruses outnumbered MacOS's.

But no, I don't doubt what you're saying at all.

You are absolutely correct - however I have noticed that a great many CDs do not have the Compact Disc logo on the outside of the packaging anymore, even if they are an actual red book audio disc. Many use an internal tray liner with an embossed CD logo in the corner, which you only see once you open the disc.

If I was being charitable, I would say this is to save on logo space when designing the actual artwork for the discs. My tinfoil hat side says the RIAA knew that truly cipppled/DRM'd discs are not technically CDs anymore -- and some people would quickly figure that out, once the protected logos started appearing in its place. Since most retail CD stores will not take back an opened CD these days, there's no way to really verify that what you have just purchased is actually a CD until its too late.

As a weird aside, have any of you noticed something quite strange about the 'copy-protected' logo? When I look at that, I think 'play. record. play. record.' Hardly seems appropriate.

Haven't we seen this before?

• OS-X has a built-in firewall, OS-9 does not.

Found this while looking for a shot of the icon:

Arik Hesseldahl: Had a small profit. OK. Any interest whatsoever, since in the open source OGG Vorbis format?

Steve Jobs: We're certainly not getting any requests from customers for it.

Cite. Basically what everyone already knows; they're unlikely to support Vorbis because consumers are unlikely to want it. Most of my music is in Ogg, so this is the main reaosn why I'm not interested in the iPod (even though the touchwheel thing is so damn slick), but I'm certainly not representative of the majority.

Some time ago, there was a similar deal with the iTunes music service. See here.

Operator: And our next question we'll take is from Arik Hesseldahl with Forbes.com.

Arik Hesseldahl: Hi, Steve. Always concerned about -- not concerned, I guess, but wondering -- one of the previous questions was about revenue. I'm wondering if iTunes has reached the break even point yet.

Steve Jobs: Yes. The iTunes music store had a small profit this past quarter.

Arik Hesseldahl: Had a small profit. OK. Any interest whatsoever, since in the open source OGG Vorbis format?

Steve Jobs: We're certainly not getting any requests from customers for it.

Arik Hesseldahl: OK.

Source: Conference call, April 29, 2004.

>> I would much rather pay a monthly fee for unlimited usage

Then sign up for the subscription.

Customers will also have access to Napster's subscription model, which allows users to download music on demand for as long as they subscribe. Subscribers can also purchase the right to burn a song for 88 pence (US$1.57) per single.

You get unlimited downloads and a discount on tracks you wish to purchase.

when the Apple is dying trolls ran rampant.


Related link

First, some undisputable facts.

And now some helpful sites are found here

Oh yeah, the first Doom 3 demo was at Macworld, too.

...especially when you consider that both NeXT and Be were started by former Apple VPs (Steve Jobs and Jean-Louis Gassee).

Operator: And our next question we'll take is from Arik Hesseldahl with Forbes.com.

Arik Hesseldahl: Hi, Steve. Always concerned about -- not concerned, I guess, but wondering -- one of the previous questions was about revenue. I'm wondering if iTunes has reached the break even point yet.

Steve Jobs: Yes. The iTunes music store had a small profit this past quarter.

Arik Hesseldahl: Had a small profit. OK. Any interest whatsoever, in the open source OGG Vorbis format?

Steve Jobs: We're certainly not getting any requests from customers for it.

Arik Hesseldahl: OK.

(source: press conference, April 28, 2004)

But in any event, most of the albums on iTunes are priced at $9.99 and below and, no, they're not creeping up. There's always a few that are a little higher than you can go in and pull out, but they're very, very competitive and we see in the future the prices of the albums coming down, not going up, because that's what it's going to take to sell more albums and it's in everybody's best interest to do so.

Microsoft have, um, a bit of a reputation problem as it is :-) and I can't imagine it'd get any better if it became public knowledge that their security updates sometimes deleted the operating system.

Yeah, like that hasn't happened several times already.

p

They've yet to accuse somebody who "didn't do it".

Not quite accurate: RIAA Withdraws Piracy Lawsuit Against Mac User

No, no... not doomed. Beleaguered. Get it right. :)

Although Forgent would not divulge the exact amount of the agreement, it is thought Sony paid between $17 million and $18 million.

Some of these machines are right at 3 years old...you're right...but I've had a slow trickle of hard drive failures from the minute we got them. Various plain-box PC's I bought in the same time frame had none of these problems. These computers are not abused, severely or otherwise...and maintenance? Well, how do you maintain an integrated network card? We vacuum them on a regular basis, but other than that, how do you "maintain" a solid-state device? They are in a very well-ventilated, air-conditioned/heated room and have plenty of area on every side...they are in the same room that, again, my PC's have been flawless in. I am not dumping on Apple for no reason; I am saying that in years past, they were held up as the Gold Standard of Hardware, and none of these problems would be happening. Saying that it was a bad batch would be stretching it a bit... Here's a link The fact is that they were poorly designed, and failed at terrifying rate.

Apple is selling a lot of iPods, but I think its got a short lifespan. Within the next couple of years, you will see flash-memory based players that hold about 5GB's of storage. And these will sell for under $100 at some point. By then, the price will win out over the glamour of the iPod. And once again Apple will be left behind.

Hmm..They're already having serious problems!

Damn near everyone knows Apple now, and for all the right reasons. Can you really see them going away quietly? Sounds like yet another death prediction to me..

I wrote an article on this a while back. Someone else in this thread asked why would anyone lock themselves into a proprietary development platform when Linux is available. Well, it ain't necessarily so proprietary.

Beyond the obvious allure, i.e., OS X is the only easy to use desktop Unix that natively supports the major productivity applications (i.e., Microsoft Office). That combination is just not available. Yea, OpenOffice is nice, but for those that *need* 100% compatibility, it's not ready for prime time. Just like linux for the desktop.

Anyway, ever since NeXT opened the developer spec for OPENSTEP, GNUstep has been doing a great job of recreating a compile compatible version. What this means is that Cocoa really isn't as proprietary as you might think because it sticks to the OPENSTEP spec. The result is apps developed for GNUstep can be compiled for OS X's cocoa with relatively little fuss or muss. In essence GNUstep is someone Mac compatible.

Personally, I wish people would dump GNOME and KDE and adopt GNUstep with display ghostscript, a unified class structure, a great GUI, and Linux underpinnings; it is OS X for Linux. Ok, it's more like NeXTSTEP for Linux. Anyway, if anyone takes it mainstream it could mean big problems for Apple.

...Dell claiming that they were the first to ship integrated wireless and antennas in a laptop, even though Apple in fact did it more than a year earlier?

Maybe someone should "act on behalf of consumers" to notify them of these "inaccuracies".

Apple's dying! Wait; they died. 39 times.

Yes, yes, yes, Apple's about to bite to dust, we've been hearing that for years.

Check out the Apple Death Knell Counter for links to many, many other articles, dating back to 1995, all of which have experts predicting that Apple is about to go bust.

And its done by someone with a new technology to get people talking about it. Look at all the debates and forum chatter that got sparked off by intels "Bluetooth is dead". "C is dead", "CISC is dead"....
,"Apple is dead".
When technologies really do die, its when noone gives a damn about them, and so noone will be writing a story about it.

Okay, first off, I have no idea how the comment text on that got duplicated.

Second, is it really Troll to honestly state the obvious? Any fool can see that Apple's marketshare is gone and is never coming back. Once a school chooses Windows as its standard OS and bans Apple purchases (as my district did in 2002), there will be no "switching" back.

``Dell is thrashing Apple in terms of new education sales by some 35% to 21% of purchases." (Nov. 2002, source)

Education Market Share
Apple: 15%
Dell: 35%
(Sep. 2002, source)

``The trend toward standardization is hurting Apple where it has traditionally been stronger -- in schools, where information-technology workers are increasingly deciding what computers to buy, despite the protest of Mac-loyal teachers. When Quality Education Data surveyed school districts last fall, 54 percent said their schools used some Macs, while 91 percent said their schools used some Windows PCs. The number of Macs was lower than the year before.
`Apple's market share is declining steadily,' said Jeanne Hayes, president of QED. `Dell is definitely the leader now both in installed base and in share, because they've moved into the server business as well.' "
(Jul. 2003, source; this article also discusses Apple's market share in general and indicates the failure of the "Switch" campaign)

Okay, first off, I have no idea how the comment text on that got duplicated.

Second, is it really Troll to honestly state the obvious? Any fool can see that Apple's marketshare is gone and is never coming back. Once a school chooses Windows as its standard OS and bans Apple purchases (as my district did in 2002), there will be no "switching" back.

``Dell is thrashing Apple in terms of new education sales by some 35% to 21% of purchases." (Nov. 2002, source)

Education Market Share
Apple: 15%
Dell: 35%
(Sep. 2002, source)

``The trend toward standardization is hurting Apple where it has traditionally been stronger -- in schools, where information-technology workers are increasingly deciding what computers to buy, despite the protest of Mac-loyal teachers. When Quality Education Data surveyed school districts last fall, 54 percent said their schools used some Macs, while 91 percent said their schools used some Windows PCs. The number of Macs was lower than the year before.
`Apple's market share is declining steadily,' said Jeanne Hayes, president of QED. `Dell is definitely the leader now both in installed base and in share, because they've moved into the server business as well.' "
(Jul. 2003, source; this article also discusses Apple's market share in general and indicates the failure of the "Switch" campaign)

The Panther edition is out in June? Shouldn't we have OS X Cougar/Lynx/Leopard/Tiger by then, or at least soon after?

I guess Fred feels his work is done now, because he is calling it quits on June 1. Anderson has been instrumental in solving Apple's financial problems from the day Gil Amelio hired him in 1996. He created the company's large cash reserves by liquidating unnecessary capital investments (plant), issuing a convertible debenture and selling some of their valuable ARM holdings. Then he managed the investment of those funds astutely enough to make the conversion of those outstanding notes to common stock a huge win for both the company and creditors. That 1999 conversion alone eliminated about two thirds of Apple's long term debt (conversely that means the issue had assumed most of Apple's debt). Really, this guy has done an outstanding job. You can thank him for their sound financials.

"Where do microprocessors come from, Daddy?" That's an awkward question we all must answer at some stage in our careers. What mysterious process converts elemental silicon into elemental forces like Intel's Itanium or Motorola's PowerPC? Let us explore the wonder that is semiconductor creation.

Shouldn't that include IBM?

[Darl] You see the stock yesterday? Kept going down. And hard. I even heard the analysts are onto our scam.

[Bob] Yup. It's getting just plain impossible to dump this stock anymore. What do we do? We got hammered on that 'dog ate our homework' line on our court filing last week. What do you think David? You guys did a bang up job making it look like Gore won Florida when there was no way a recount would ever show that. Hell, half the country still believes that 'selected, not elected' crap.

[Boies] Well I always say, play offense, not defense. We need to get the public back on our side. Control the spin. You know, make us out to be the victim again. It plays into these schmucks capability for pity.

[Darl] I got it! What if we were being attacked by evil hackers again? (laughs)

[Boies] Bingo. What can your geeks whip up quick, Darl?

[Darl] Well they sure ain't coding operating systems and their time spent looking for code violations in Linux has been a big waste. Maybe we could put them on making some sort of johnson or trojan or something that attacks our Internet connection. Bench, you think that'd help our numbers?

[Bob] Might. What'da say Dave?

[Boies] Hell, it'd be perfect! I'd bet it'd not only turn the PR our way, but I could put that half-assed son of Hatch's to business suing Internet service providers for causing our business damage. And if we totally bomb in court with this asshole judge, we'll just claim the whole company imploded cause of the Internet hacks and sue the pants off of every provider.

[Darl] Love it! Hey, let's call it some prophetic name like SCO doom or our doom like those bozos at the church are always yacking about end of world crap. Should get them riled up too. And hey, it might just be true for SCO! To the bank, buddies!

yeah... just like Rush Limbaugh... or James Lileks... just a couple more lefty Mac lovers.

It would be no more surprising than the Beatles suing Apple

this page on macobserver.com is an old article, but timely. it has links to a lot of old apple ads and brochures from the days when you had to explain to people what a mouse was.

i have a little collection of old BYTE magazines that i picked up from used book stores specifically for their apple ads. it's always amusing to me what kinds of claims they made back then...

Steve Jobs only takes home $1 a year in salary

Just something to think about.

As Jobs pointed out about their Mini iPod, the feature of the iPod that people want isn't size, price, or OGG support. If that was what they cared about, they'd go elsewhere.