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iBook Aces European "Electro-smog" Radiation Tests
Apple Says Some iPods Not Recognized By iTunes
XP Users Cop a Feel of OS X 
The Lonely Mac Support Guy
Mac OS X Nukes Zip Disks?
Tennessee Rejects Napster/RIAA Tax
MS Office Vastly Overpriced, Says UK Consumer Outfit
Turbolinux Supports Windows Media and Apple's iPod
U.S. charges four under 'spam' law
Want in on Google's IPO?
UK, US And Canada Crack Down On Net Scams
Mac Night Owl: A Paragraph Worth of Monday Rants
Mac Night Owl: Throwing Out the iBook with the Bath Water
PC Mag: Canon PowerShot S500 Digital Elph First Look[/url]



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iBook Aces European "Electro-smog" Radiation Tests

Reader Richard Kähler of Germany passed this interesting item along:

Dear Charles,

Just found this message in my favourite German Mac-newsmagazine:
http://www.macgadget.de

(16:20 Uhr) Kaum Elektrosmog-Belastung durch iBook G4. Notebooks liegen im Trend - auch bei Apple ( http://www.apple.com/de/ ). Fast jeder zweite verkaufte Mac ist mittlerweile ein Mobilrechner. Doch wie sieht es in Sachen Elektrosmog aus? Die Zeitschrift Ökotest ( http://www.oekotest.de/ ) ging dieser Frage nach und testete ( http://www.oekotest.de/cgi/ot/otgs.cgi?doc=32130 ) acht Notebooks unterschiedlicher Preisklassen auf ihre Strahlungswerte. Das Ergebnis: Nur das iBook G4 ( http://www.apple.com/de/ibook/ ) von Apple erfüllt die strenge TCO-Norm und erhielt das Prädikat "sehr gut". Drei Geräte erzielten ein "befriedigendes", weitere drei (von Medion ( http://www.medion.de/ ), Samsung ( http://www.samsung.de/ ) und Sony ( http://www.sony.de/ )) ein "ausreichendes" Ergebnis. Ein Dell ( http://www.dell.de/ )-Notebook erhielt von den Testern ein "mangelhaft". Laut Ökotest wurden die Elektrosmogmessungen praxisnah und in Anlehnung an die von der schwedischen TCO-Norm geforderten Meßmethoden durchgeführt. Der vollständige Test ist in der Mai-Ausgabe von Ökotest nachzulesen.

Rough private translation:

The German test-magazin 'Oeko-test' (which is very stringent at testing every kind of product for being harmful to health!) had tested eight notebooks for electro-smog (radiation of high- & low frequency electric fields & electrostatic). And THE ONLY ONE which passed the tests and being totally okay with the very severe Swedish TCO-Norm ( which is acknowledged on work-stations here in Europe ) has been the Apple iBook G4 (Hooray!). All the other notebooks (for instance a Samsung X30 WVC 1700 and a Sony Vaio PCG-GRT916Z) did radiate electro-smog 10 to 40 times higher than allowed by TCO. The worst results of all notebooks had a Inspiron 510m by Dell.

The whole test-text (in German) can be found here:
http://www.oekotest.de/cgi/ot/otgs.cgi?doc=32130





Apple Says Some iPods Not Recognized By iTunes

Reuters reports that:

" Apple Computer Inc. is investigating a problem with some of its iPod digital music players that prevents them from being recognized by the latest version of iTunes, it said on Friday.....

"'Apple is aware of a few isolated reports of iTunes 4.5 not recognizing the iPod and is looking into it,' the company said in a statement. 'If a customer has any technical issues they should contact Apple care.'"

For the full report, visit here:
http://www.forbes.com/technology/newswire/2004/04/30/rtr1355557.html






XP Users Cop a Feel of OS X 

Wired's Leander Kahney says:

"AquaXP [is] a site devoted to turning XP boxes into faux Macs.

"AquaXP has 9,000 members. The site is named after Apple Computer's distinctive Aqua Mac OS X interface. A similar site, Aqua-Soft.org, has 16,000 members. And there are a dozen or more sites like them, according to the links collected at Iceman's Emulation Page.

"Clearly, emulating OS X is an engaging hobby for a significant number of Windows XP users. A recently released theme for XP that looks like the Jaguar iteration of OS X was downloaded 50,000 times, according to its creator, Iceman.

"'There are a lot of people out there who really like Apple and the Mac and this is the next best way to support them,' said Brad Wardell, president and CEO of Stardock, which makes several Windows XP customization tools popular with the PC-to-Mac crowd.

"Wardell said the best way to support Apple, of course, is to get a Mac, but a lot of his customers are in a youthful age bracket, and feel they can't yet afford a Mac, given Apple's reputation for charging premium prices."

You can check it out at:
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,63256,00.html






The Lonely Mac Support Guy

Low End Mac's Dan Knight says:

"Although Mac OS X isn't perfect (my wife has been having real printing and classic mode problems for over a week now) and Apple hardware is sometimes flawed (the recently expanded iBook logic board replacement program also demonstrating that Apple generally bends overboard once they determine that the problem is repeatable, widespread, and that they have a way to fix it), for the most part Macs just keep on working and working and working.

"Whether Maytag is more reliable than other brands, the decades-old image of the lonely Maytag repairman has equated Maytag and reliability, just as other ad campaigns make us think Volvo = safety and Verizon means broad, reliable wireless coverage.

"Apple needs to choose a theme that will help differentiate themselves from the pack in the popular mind. Think Different sent the wrong message, as did the 'the computers for the rest of us' campaign, which many people saw as elitist.

"By suggesting a lonely Mac support guy, I'm proposing that Apple market the Mac as reliable hardware, the Mac OS as rock solid and better than earlier versions, the fact that Mac users tend to really love their computers, and the fact that you just don't need a lot of hand-holding with a Mac."

You can check it out at:
http://lowendmac.com/musings/04/0430.html






Mac OS X Nukes Zip Disks?

MrBarrett.com says:

"For quite awhile, we've been experiencing a rash of failing zip disks in our Mac labs. For some time, I assumed it was just the natural flakiness of zip disks, but now I'm not so sure. I've begun to suspect that perhaps it's something related to Mac OS X that's contributing to, if not causing, the failures we're seeing.

"The failures almost always result in the disk not being recognized by the system anymore--as if the directory has been damaged, or as if you've insert a non-initialized disk. Mac OS X will pop up the dialog box saying 'You've inserted a volume Mac OS X cannot recognize' and give you three options: initalize, ignore, and eject. Because you want to attempt to recover the data on the disk, you, of course, don't choose initalize. Choosing ignore will allow you to (hopefully) run some data recovery software on the disk and recover the data...

"We've almost universally stopped recommending that students buy Zip disks for their data storage because of these persistent and catastrophic failures. Far too many students are learning the hard way about the importance of having a backup of their data...."

For the full report, visit here:
http://www.mrbarrett.com/mt/archives/2004_04_27.html#000917






Tennessee Rejects Napster/RIAA Tax

The Register's Ashlee Vance reports:

"More than 180,000 students will be free of a Napster/RIAA music tax thanks to the Tennessee Board of Regents.

"The group has rejected a proposal to slap students with a mandatory fee for the Napster music download service. The agreement with Napster would have kept the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) off the backs of the 45 schools represented by the Tennessee Board of Regents but add to already massive uni costs. Despite bullying by the RIAA, Tennessee has decided that a $9.99 per student/per month fee is too high a price to pay to solve a not terribly important problem....

"So far, not a single school that we are aware of has agreed to pay full price for a music download service, as an option to push students away from downloading copyrighted files on peer-to-peer networks."

For the full report, visit here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/30/tennessee_rejects_musictax/






MS Office Vastly Overpriced, Says UK Consumer Outfit

The Register's John Lettice reports:

"Microsoft software is seven times more expensive than alternatives, the latest issue of UK Consumers Association magazine Computing Which? claims.....

"The net effect of Microsoft's pricing structures is that Office has a dominant position, that rivals tend not to get much of a look in, and that the installed base is source of upgrade income. This process is most developed via business licensing, because the picture here is that you essentially pay for upgrades for a period, not for full price software as and when you need it, and therefore it pays you to keep extending the deal. If you don't, you fall off the conveyor belt and you'll have to pay a very large full price tab to get yourself back on (although saying "Linux" a lot can sometimes ease the size of the tab).

".....The mag suggests free versions of Mozilla, Opera and Eudora as viable alternatives, recommends consumers try to 'support the companies that keep Microsoft on their toes,' and welcomes the decision of the European Commission 'to stop Microsoft using Windows as a tool against rival companies.'"

You can check it out at:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/30/msoffice_pricing_attack/





Turbolinux Supports Windows Media and Apple's iPod

cbronline.com reports:

Japanese Linux distributor Turbolinux Inc has introduced a new multimedia version of its eponymous desktop Linux operating system with support for Microsoft Corp's Windows Media and Apple Computer Inc's iPod MP3 player.

"Turbolinux 10 F is based on the existing Turbolinux 10 Desktop product, and also includes support for CyberLink's PowerDVD for Linux, Apple's Quicktime software and iPod MP3 player, Macromedia Flash, and RealNetworks' video and audio formats.

"The product will be released in Japan at the end of May priced at $149, and will be available to customers in the rest of the world at the end of June...."

For the full report, visit here.
http://www.cbronline.com/currentnews/e55efb681eb2202b80256e850032ddc3






U.S. charges four under 'spam' law

The Associated Press' Ted Bridis reports:

"Federal authorities say they managed to pierce the murky underworld of Internet spam e-mails, filing the first criminal charges under the government's new 'can spam' legislation.

"Court documents in the landmark case in Detroit describe a nearly inscrutable puzzle of corporate identities, bank accounts and electronic storefronts in one alleged spam operation."

You can check it out at:
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/8543317.htm





Want in on Google's IPO?

CNET News.com's Dawn Kawamoto says:

"Search engine giant Google is opening its long-expected initial public offering to the masses through an open auction process, but investors should be prepared to jump through a number of hoops to get there.

"In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, Google outlined how prospective investors can participate in the IPO process and offered tips to avoid disqualification. Given the expected strong demand for the shares, investors are likely to heed such advice.

"Among other things, Google issued a firm warning to speculators hoping to make a buck by quickly flipping their shares, a hallmark of many hot technology IPOs in the past. Instead, Google hopes to place its shares in a way that avoids the typical investment banking strategy of intentional underpricing--and the volatility that frequently follows."

For the full report, visit here:
http://news.com.com/2100-1038-5202120.html?tag=nl





UK, US And Canada Crack Down On Net Scams

The Register's Tim Richardson reports:

"The UK, US and Canada are to work even closer together in a bid to tackle international scams - many of which are peddled via the Net.

"New intelligence-sharing arrangements with the Canadian Competition Bureau, the US Federal Trade Commission and the UK's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) should make it easier for law enforcers to nab villains.

"The new measures means that officials should be able to investigate more quickly rip-offs such as the Canadian Lottery scam - in which people are told they've hit the jackpot but need to hand over taxes or a handling fee to claim their winnings."

For the full report, visit here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/30/scam_oft_net/






Mac Night Owl: A Paragraph Worth of Monday Rants

CNET does it again to Mac users.

Here's the URL for today's commentary:

http://www.macnightowl.com/index.htm#rants





Mac Night Owl: Throwing Out the iBook with the Bath Water

Make a Steve Jobs instructional video and be done with it.

Here's the URL for today's commentary:

http://www.macnightowl.com/index.htm#water





PC Mag: Canon PowerShot S500 Digital Elph First Look

"The Canon PowerShot S500 Digital Elph is a worthy successor to the extremely popular S400. Compact (a bit larger than a pack of cigarettes) and simple to use, this camera is deceptively powerful and produces."

Read more at:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1581562,00.asp


***



Charles W. Moore


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