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Apple Sues Magsafe Adapter Counterfeiter
Apple Sues To Stop Power Adapter Knock Offs
Apple Sues Over Knock-off Power Bricks
Dissecting a Black Friday Doorbuster: Is That $197 HP Laptop Any Good?
Apple Takes Nearly 50% Of US Desktop And One-Third Of Laptop Sales Revenues
The Tech Night Owl: The Apple Tax Revisited
Five Reasons To Partition Your Hard Drive
The Enduring Value of Macs
Samsung Supplies Of Memory Chips Sufficient, Say Distributors
Shoppers Stick to Traditional Fare for Thanksgiving: Top 15 Holiday Grocery Items Announced
Black Friday Shopping Tips in NY
Billionaire Floats Eco Dream On Sailing Soda Bottles - Plastiki and the 100% Recyclable Yacht
Apple Sues Magsafe Adapter Counterfeiter
HardMac's Lionel reports:
On Monday Apple deposited a complaint against a Californian company that offered on many sites copies of the MagSafe chargers.
As you can see it, the product is practically identical to that of Apple, including the magnetized connector. However, contrary to the connectors with which the Powerbook and iBook were equipped, Apple patented this MagSafe connector and nobody can copy it without permission, that is systematically refused.
The honest companies marketing of the external batteries are obliged to cannibalise Apple chargers to recover this end in all legality.
For the full report visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/y9tvk7r
Apple Sues To Stop Power Adapter Knock Offs
InformationWeek's Thomas Claburn reports:
Apple on Monday filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Media Solutions Holdings, a company based in Anaheim, Calif. that allegedly sells knock-off Apple products through several Web sites.
Apple's complaint charges that Media Solutions Holdings, through the Web sites http://www.laptopsforless.com , http://www.laptopacadapter.com and http://www.ereplacements.com , sells "various consumer electronic accessories at retail, including knock-off power adapters for use with genuine Apple portable computers."
"Through various Web sites and otherwise, the Defendants market these knock-off power adapters for use with Apple portable computers, such as the MacBook," the complaint states.
Apple claims that some of the power adapters sold through these Web sites violate its "Power adapter" patent, issued in August, 2003.
For the full report visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/yeaddva
You can read the court document here:
http://tinyurl.com/yfjckbe
Apple Sues Over Knock-off Power Bricks
The Register's Rik Myslewski reports:
Apple has sued a California company for alleging infringing a laptop AC-adapter patent granted to Cupertino in 2003.
And they may have already won.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/11/25/apple_ac_adapter_lawsuit/
Dissecting a Black Friday Doorbuster: Is That $197 HP Laptop Any Good?
PC World's Jeff Bertolucci says that Black Friday doorbusters are loss leaders designed to whip up consumerist lust and draw shoppers to stores.
One of this year's most intriguing offers is a $197 HP laptop at Best Buy. Deal or no deal? Bertolucci took a closer look.
For the full report visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/yhm9yy9
Apple Takes Nearly 50% Of US Desktop And One-Third Of Laptop Sales Revenues
BetaNews's Joe Wilcox reports that Mac US retail desktop computer revenue share In October was 47.71 percent - up from 33.44 percent a year earlier, according to NPD -- "a stunning number, given just how many Windows PC companies combined command so much more market share, while competing for the same revenue share."
Wilcox muses that Apple likely can't sustain such high desktop dollar share, but cites an industry expert saying even a decline to 40 percent revenue share would put Apple far ahead of every competitor selling Windows PCs, and that that Mac desktop revenue share had already risen to 44.91 percent by April 2009, well before the recent release of the hot-selling new 21.5" and 27" iMacs.
As for Mac notebooks' share of the revenue pie, NPD tracked that at 33.66 percent in October, up from 30.07 percent in April but down from 38.13 percent a year ago. Portable computer sales are the fastest-growing PC market segment, and Apple has the advantage of its notebook Average Selling Price (ASP) being not far off three times that of the typical Windows notebook at $1,410 vs $519 respectively in October, according Wilcox citing NPD data gathering.
Wilcox predicts that notwithstanding the Windows 7 rollout, that Mac overall US retail revenue share will stay well above one-third and more than 40 percent for desktops.
For the full report visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/yhvbyvw
The Tech Night Owl: The Apple Tax Revisited
All right, a new report from the NPD Group says that 48% of the retail dollars spent on personal computers in the U.S. now goes to Apple. However, that doesn't add up to a 48%% market share by any means, because of the price of admission. But, folks, I still maintain there is no Apple Tax.
Here's the URL for today's commentary:
http://www.technightowl.com/2009/11/the-apple-tax-revisited/
Notes: You can also access our new RSS feed, available at:
http://www.technightowl.com/rss
Or our new Atom feed at:
http://www.technightowl.com/atom
Five Reasons To Partition Your Hard Drive
Macworld's Joe Kissell outlines a few situations when it's worth it to split up your hard disk. Any internal (IDE or SATA) or external (FireWire, USB, or eSATA) disk can be reorganized into one or more virtual volumes called partitions. Each partition appears on your Desktop as an independent disk, and you can even mix and match formatting methods from one partition to the next on the same disk, and if you use Apple's Boot Camp to run Windows on your Mac, you're obliged to have two (but no more) partitions.
You can check it out at:
http://www.macworld.com/article/144115/2009/11/partition.html?lsrc=rss_main
The Enduring Value of Macs
Low End Mac's Dan Knight says:
We live in a consumer society. For the most part, things are not built to last and last. In Europe, there are town halls and castles and churches nearly a thousand years old. Here in America, we no longer seem to create buildings to last more than a few generations....
Apple breaks that mold to some extent. While its products are not designed to last forever, they are built up to a quality. Macs don't really compete with commodity PCs, where it doesn't matter whether the nameplate says Dell, HP, Acer, or Bob's Homebuilt PC. In the PC world, everyone can use the same CPUs, the same memory chips, the same video cards, the same hard drives, the same optical drives, the same USB controllers, the same SATA chips, and so on. To a great extent, they can even use the same motherboard, power supply, and case.
The reality is that... old computers running old software on old operating systems are no less capable than the day they came off the assembly line. In many cases, those old Macs have become more capable both through hardware upgrades (RAM, hard drives, video cards, etc.) and software upgrades (newer versions of the Mac OS and Mac apps)....
Part of the reason Macs are worth more than commodity PCs is that they continue to just work. Pop in commodity RAM or a commodity hard drive/optical drive as necessary, and those old Macs become more capable at very little cost. Upgrade your OS and apps only when necessary to minimize your investment in productivity. Use freeware and included apps when possible. Keep it cheap.....
At Low End Mac, we recognize the enduring quality and usability of older Macs. I'm typing these words on a long-discontinued Logitech keyboard, using a long-discontinued Logitech mouse, running a long-discontinued Mac (dual 1 GHz Power Mac G4 from 2002) and a long-discontinued operating system (Mac OS X 10.4, first released in April 2005)....
Living the Low End way is a lifestyle. Whether you keep using your old Mac as long as practical because of your budget or because your philosophically opposed to unnecessary consumption, you're on the Low End Mac page.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://lowendmac.com/musings/09mm/macs-are-worth-it.html
Samsung Supplies Of Memory Chips Sufficient, Say Distributors
DIGITIMES' Hans Wu and Jessie Shen report:
Supreme Electronics, a Taiwan-based memory IC distributor for Samsung Electronics, has remarked that supplies of DRAM and NAND flash chips from the Korea-based vendor became sufficient recently.....
Downstream device makers and distributors reportedly saw limited NAND flash from Samsung over the previous two months, as the vendor gave Apple orders top priority. However, the tight supply has eased, mainly because iPhone sales in China are not as good as those in other countries, according to industry sources.....
As for DRAM chips, Samsung has also increased its chip supply to downstream customers, the sources indicated.
For the full report visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/y8kzt6a
Shoppers Stick to Traditional Fare for Thanksgiving: Top 15 Holiday Grocery Items Announced
Thanksgiving shoppers stuck to traditional fare at the grocery store, according to Vermont-based MyWebGrocer. Time-honored fare is topping shopping lists across the country, even as shoppers are increasingly planning their menus online or on mobile devices.
The way people are shopping this Thanksgiving differs from years past. They're making lists on their iPhones, shopping online circulars, and printing out coupons from home more than ever.
"The way people are shopping this Thanksgiving differs from years past. They're making lists on their iPhones, shopping online circulars, and printing out coupons from home more than ever," said Rebecca Roose, MyWebGrocer's Social Media Manager. "But when it comes to the menu, they are sticking with tradition. It's an interesting convergence of old and new."
Not surprisingly, turkey tops the list of most sought-after grocery items this month, beating out the typical monthly leader, milk, by 74%. Searches for turkey increased 569% compared to October. Stuffing, that starchy staple so integral to any well-rounded Thanksgiving menu, saw a huge boost in popularity this month, rising 942%, as did yams, which rose 502%.
"Convenience is key for shoppers in the Digital Age," says Roose. "But don't mess with the menu! You can plan your Thanksgiving feast online, but be sure you have pumpkin pie on the list!"
MyWebGrocer is the leading digital services provider for retail grocery, connecting retail brands to their consumers through ecommerce and online tools. Retail partners include ShopRite, Lowes Food Stores, Big Y, Food Lion and 90 other leading grocery chains. MyWebGrocer has the largest online grocery-advertising network, attracting advertisers such as Kellogg's, Unilever, Nestle, P&G and 60 other leading brands.
Black Friday Shopping Tips in NY
Epoch Times Staff say:
Here's a few recommendations of places to visit when you're holiday shopping this year....
Apple Computer Stores
New Upper West Side Mac Store. Like its counterparts, the new Mac store is a sleek gallery of Apple products housed in clean white and glass surfaces....
Tekserve. An authorized Apple retailer and repair shop. Known as the "old reliable Mac shop," the atmosphere at Tekserve is the antithesis of the pristine Apple stores. The wooden plank floor creaks under your feet, old Apple posters hang on the walls, and vintage Macintosh computers display numbers for the next in line....
For the full report visit here:
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/25701/
Billionaire Floats Eco Dream On Sailing Soda Bottles - Plastiki and the 100% Recyclable Yacht
The Register's Dan Goodin reports:
By now, David de Rothschild is used to being cast as the eccentric visionary whose well-meaning crusade to save the world's oceans is overshadowed by a lack of execution - or at least naiveté.
After all, the billionaire eco-adventurer's three-year quest to sail across the Pacific in a boat made completely of recycled materials has suffered its share of setbacks. For one thing, the vessel is no longer being made solely of recycled plastics.
And for another, some doubt the 60-foot catamaran containing 12,500 2-liter reclaimed soda bottles will withstand the cruel Pacific waves during a planned 12,000-mile trek from California to Australia.
To read more, click here.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/25/plastiki_recycled_boat/
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