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The Echostar thing actually just ended with Echostar paying $18.9 million to NDS in damages
http://www.twice.com/article/482033-EchoStar_Payment_Ends_NDS_Lawsuit.php

Exactly this type of stuff has been done many times in the past...

1) A couple of years before the analogue TV shutdown, it became mandatory for tuners in all TV sets above a certain size to be ATSC-capable. And companies that didn't comply were subject to fines... http://www.twice.com/article/242085-FCC_Cites_Two_For_DTV_Tuner_Violations.php It was legal to sell "monitors" (i.e no tuner), or dual (ATSC+NTSC) tuner, or ATSC-only tuners, but NTSC-only tuners were outlawed.

2) Before that, FM radios in cars were kick-started in the 1970's by a requirement that all factory-installed radios on new cars have FM tuners. You could sell a new car with no radio, or dual AM-FM radio, or FM-only, but AM-only was illegal.

3) And before that, to solve the chicken-and-egg problem for UHF TV, all new TV sets were required to be able to tune UHF channels, which at that time went up to 83.

So, yes, it has been done in the past, and can be done again.

Please mod parent down: as of 2009, 80% of blackberry customers are non-corporate consumers: http://www.twice.com/article/295368-RIM_Majority_Of_BlackBerry_Users_Now_Consumers_Small_Businesses.php

This use-case is illegal in many states (this article claims 39 of them), as you're not allowed to have a TV placed in a spot that is visible to the driver. I imagine that the maker of this is adding the monitor because they don't want to spend all their time in court.

Why not add in a DivX player too while you're at it?

already announced from samsung! http://www.twice.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA6605719&rssid=84

I wouldn't be too sure that they can't conduct a raid in the US:
http://www.twice.com/article/CA6344162.html
All they have to do is say that infringing on the patent makes it a counterfeit trademark (interesting bit of legal gymnastics there), and voila, they get a search warrant.

I think your numbers are misleading. The Zune quickly got 9% of its market segment, which gave it second place after the iPod. A week later, it dropped to #5 or so again.

I think the Zune currently holds 10% of the HD based MP3 players ; unfortunately, most MP3 players sold are not HD based, so the number is pretty much meaningless.

Why should politicans stand on principles when the American people can't.

It is also a tragically pathetic ploy at trying to justify something they KNOW DAMN WELL is wrong, in the service of a growing police state. They are more interested in sucking up to this administration (and their own business interests, since they are in various federal legal battles, federal merger fights, etc.)

If this is the best legal justification they can come of for doing it, they would be much better served by simply turning the tables, refusing to do it, and forcing the federal government to make THEIR case for it.

I find it interesting that Ballmer is projecting that the iPhone will get a bigger chunk of marketshare (2-3%) than Jobs predicted in the MacWorld keynote...didn't he state that the target for iPhone sales was 1% of the cellular market?

1% of a giant shitload of phones (and there is a GIANT shitload of phones in use today, with over 230 million subscribers; where does Ballmer get the 1.3 billion from, world market?) is still a big number; and sometimes keeping things small and manageable can be more profitable and more fun than being the biggest, baddest company out there.

Success isn't just a matter of the bottom line (too bad too many CEOs don't see that).

'This Week In Consumer Electronics' claims to have obtained pricing information from retailers, putting Zune at $299, the same price as a 30GB iPod.

Tough sell?

Then please explain MS's 95% marketshare versus Apple's 5%?

Actually, MS has 100% market share if you consider that Windows now runs natively on Apple hardware. But you'd be better off considering Apple as a harware manufacturer and comparing them to Dell, HP and the likes and not Microsoft.

Here are Gartner's numbers

Which show Apple is the 4th largest after Dell, HP and Gateway.

Comparing OS numbers is only relevant for Software developers now that Macs run Windows. Which may have been brilliant marketing, but also the new reality.

The idea that Best Buy actually cares about their customers boggles the mind.

This has absolutely nothing to do with that. The fact is, Best Buy is running scared since the FTC recently made CompUSA responsible for the rebates they had offered. They were required to put out a good sum of money to make good on those rebates.

From http://www.twice.com/article/CA6301701.html:

"Best Buy announced in April 2005 that it intended to eliminate mail-in rebates from its portfolio within two years in an effort to improve customers' experience. The announcement also followed a warning from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in March 2005 that retailers will be held accountable for all rebates they advertise, including those sponsored by vendors. The edict came after the FTC ordered CompUSA to make good on hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid rebate claims."

http://www.twice.com/article/CA6250068.html/

Marketshare in Q2 2005

Vendor. Units shipped (thousands), Marketshare
Dell. 4,988 , 32.0%
Hewlett-Packard 2,711 , 17.4%
Gateway 890 , 5.7%
Apple 663 , 4.3%

Dell ships 7.5x more computers than Apple. And they do advertising for Intel. Who do you think gets the better deal?

well, if cost was no object, there is a phatbox with wi-fi coming sometime...

I wouldn't trust Crazy Eddie if I were you.

No, it's not a miserable failure. I've got upwards of 50 DIVX movies on a hard disk in one of my computers.

On the off chance that you are not joking, you may have 50 DiVX movies on your hard drive. But he is talking about DIVX. Same letters, but a whole different meaning.

Have a look at this.

LK

New FireWire connector. I know that this might not be Apples fault, but yet another connector type for 800Gb FireWire, ugh. Yeah yeah, an adapters available, but couldn't IEEE figure out a way to make the two compatable?