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"Invention Of The Year": iTunes Music Store - TIME
Penn State Students Revolt Against Napster, DRM Invasion - Mac Users Shut Out
Penn State's Pigopolist Pork
Register Readers Say Apple will 'make RIAA beg for mercy'
Apple's 'Fastest Computer' TV Commercial Banned In UK
PC Mag: Apple 15-inch PowerBook Review
Dual USB iBook Logic Board Failure Petition Posted
Digitalway HS-100 USB Drive Praised
Mac OS X 10.3/USB Overdrive Conflict
Microsoft Lowers Price For Virtual PC 2004
eWeek: Microsoft: Virtual PC Will Run Linux
iBook G4 Owner Replaces Internal Hard Drive
Mac Night Owl: The Panther Report: The Dust Settles Rapidly
PC Mag: The Product Activation FAQ
Microsoft Asks Judge To Invalidate Electronic Signatures To Reduce Their Anti-trust Payout - States MSfreePC[/url]
"Invention Of The Year": iTunes Music Store - TIME
Apple's iTunes Music Store is TIME Magazine's "Coolest Invention of 2003" You can read the feature article by TIME's Chris Taylor here:
http://www.time.com/time/2003/inventions/invmusic.html
Very cool, although Taylor states that Mac users represent only 3% of the computer world, which understates Mac penetation somewhat. Current US domestic sales are in the 3% range, but Macs last substantially longer tha November PCs, and the overwhelming dominance of Windows PCs in enterprise skews their market share figures upward substantially.
Penn State Students Revolt Against Napster, DRM Invasion - Mac Users Shut Out
The Registers' Ashlee Vance reports:
"A small faction of anti-pigopolist soldiers have launched an attack against Penn State University's new campus-wide music deal with Napster.
"Seniors Joe Jarzab and Chad Lindell have peppered the Penn State campus with flyers, urging students to boycott buying music and to block the music labels' domination of music royalties. The students mobilized after Penn State earlier this week announced a deal with Napster to provide free music downloads to collegians as part of a DRM-laced program. The university is paying the Napster service fee out of its annual IT budget - a fund to which students must contribute $160 per semester....
"Students can opt to pay 99 cents to burn the songs on a CD, but even then there is another catch. Napster is a Windows-only service, so all the Mac fans out there receive squat for their $160 contribution to the IT fund," although a PSU spokesman is quoted saying that "Napster has some Mac software in beta that would allow songs to be played on Apple computers...."
For the full report, visit here.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/33864.html
Penn State's Pigopolist Pork
In another report on the Penn State deal, The Reg's Ashlee Vance says:
"For those keeping a close eye on the music download service scene, we'd like to introduce you to Barry K. Robinson.
"Robinson sits on Penn State University's Board of Trustees, and, as it turns out, serves as senior counsel for none other than the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). This is a handy coincidence. You might recall that Penn State announced a deal last week to subsidize the Napster music service and give all of its students free music downloads.
"Well, Penn State says all of its students can use Napster, but, truth be told, the service actually only works on computers running Windows..."
"Penn State's deep ties to the RIAA are intriguing. Along with Robinson, the school's President Graham Spanier serves as co-chair of the Committee on Higher Education and the Entertainment Industry with Cary Sherman who is President of the RIAA. Given these rather friendly pigopolist connections, it should come as no surprise that Penn State is leading the way with this free music service, touting it as a potential model for myriad universities....
"Another good question the Penn State students raise is why their school did not pick Apple's iTunes Music Store as the service of choice. It runs on both Macs and Windows-based PCs...."
The article also includes some interesting comments from Napster on Apple support.
You can check it out at:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/33900.html
Register Readers Say Apple will 'make RIAA beg for mercy'
Still with The Reg., Andrew Orlowski reports that:
"What Apple enthusiasts lack in market share, they certainly make up for in optimism. Apple vs. the RIAA is a foregone conclusion. For some of our readers, the David and Goliath mantles have been reversed, and beggar your logic: Apple's new online music store, which doesn't own any record labels or music publishing properties, and which has begged but been refused the rights to sell low bitrate copies of The Beatles' back catalog, will soon make the copyright cartel beg for mercy. How? We'll see...."
You can check it out at:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/33885.html
Apple's 'Fastest Computer' TV Commercial Banned In UK
PA News Reporter says:
"Computer giant Apple has been banned by advertising watchdogs from claiming its latest product is "the world's fastest, most powerful personal computer."
"The claim was made in a television advert for the Apple PowerMac G5.
But the Independent Television Commission branded the advert"misleading" and banned it from being broadcast.
"Eight viewers contacted the ITC to complain that the claim was based on the results of limited tests in which the specification of the computers used was configured to give Apple the best results."
For the full report, visit here:
http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2160562
PC Mag: Apple 15-inch PowerBook Review
"The included software makes the PowerBook even more of a bargain. You'll find Apple's standard business bundle, which contains the iLife suite (iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto, and iTunes), Apple Mail, the Safari browser, Art Director's Toolkit, QuickBooks for Mac New User Edition, and more. Whether we were using these or other programs, we found the PowerBook quick and responsive. The 15-inch PowerBook is a solid entry in Apple's premiere notebook line and one many people will think hits the sweet spot."
Read more at:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1378346,00.asp
Dual USB iBook Logic Board Failure Petition Posted
A group of disgruntled iBook users has posted a petition to Apple om petitiononline.com. It reads:
To: Apple Computer, Inc.
This petition is created to force Apple Computer, Inc. to admit there is a recurring and endemic problem with their Dual USB iBook computers, namely, the frequent and repeated failure of the logic boards in these machines.
We petition that Apple provide recourse to this problem by either extending the warranty on the logic boards to cover all purchasers of said machines, or by offering reasonable replacement options other than the current replacement logic board, which has been proven faulty.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
You can view the petition at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/ibook123/petition.html
Digitalway HS-100 USB Drive Praised
AP's Larry Blasko reports:
"If Santa's looking for "wow!" stocking stuffers and has no current plans to rob a bank, check out the new Digitalway MPIO HS-100 USB drive.
"First, it's about the size of a Zippo lighter, second, it holds 1.5 gigabytes of data, and third, it's USB 1.1 and 2.0 compliant....
"...the only technical involvement was plugging it into an available USB 2.0 port. XP recognizes it as another drive. That would also happen with Macintosh OS X."
For the full report, visit here.
Mac OS X 10.3/USB Overdrive Conflict
Apple has posted a Knowledge Base article noting that The Media Eject and volume keys may not work if an early version of USB Overdrive is installed.
"Early versions of USB Overdrive, published by Alessandro Levi Montalcini, may prevent the Media Eject, Volume Up, and Volume Down keys from working in Mac OS X Panther."
If you have this issue, update to a later version of USB Overdrive:
http://www.usboverdrive.com/
For more information, visit:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25634
Microsoft Lowers Price For Virtual PC 2004
Joris Evers of IDG News Service reports:
"Microsoft Corp. has set a $129 price for Virtual PC 2004 and said developers will get the virtualization product as part of their Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscription....
"Microsoft will market Virtual PC 2004 mostly to enterprise users as a way to run older legacy applications on newer Microsoft Windows XP Pro systems and to developers to make it easier to test Windows applications, Huffman said. As a result, Virtual PC 2004 will offer less support for non-Microsoft operating systems than the preceding Connectix product.
"The Connectix product had a wizard for default settings for a number of guest operating systems that compete with Windows, including Linux. Virtual PC 2004 only lists various Windows versions and OS/2, plus "others."
For the full report, visit here.
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/11/10/HNmsvirtualpc_1.html
eWeek: Microsoft: Virtual PC Will Run Linux
"Microsoft Corp. on Monday will announce the release of its Virtual PC technology to manufacturing and that the final product will be available to customers by the end of this year at a lower price than the original Connectix product.
Microsoft in February acquired the Virtual Machine assets of Connectix Corp., a privately held company in San Mateo, Calif., that has been involved in Virtual Machine (VM) technology since its inception in 1988.
Carla Huffman, Microsoft's product manager for the Virtual PC, told eWEEK that the software will be available by the end of the year, through Microsoft's existing retail and volume licensing channels, for an estimated retail price of $129, $100 less than the Connectix price of $229."
Read more at:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1378269,00.asp
iBook G4 Owner Replaces Internal Hard Drive
XLR8Your Mac has an interesting reader report on replacing the hard drive in a new G4c iBook
"I ordered the 30 gig internal knowing I'd be replacing it. I xBenched it at about 59 points. The drive did get noticeably hot during use, making my left hand sweat! I looked on the old dual USB ibook pages for how to replace the hard drive, and have some great comments to report.
"First of all, you don't have to remove the bottom cover at all (on the iBook G4 model) to remove the top. Remove all the screws on the bottom, and there are now two extra in the battery compartment. The bottom will not remove even if you try, there are two screws near the slot loading optical drive! Anyhow, remove the keyboard, AE card and the plate to access the RAM.
Disconnect the keyboard, remove all screws (including one under the small round magnet in the middle-top). The top of the case then comes off very easily...The heat shield comes off easily and the drive was a cinch to replace!...I don't recommend anyone actually do this, since it was a nightmare of nervousness, BUT if you know not to try and pry the bottom of the case open, it's really quite easy, just take your time."
For full details, visit:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/
Mac Night Owl: The Panther Report: The Dust Settles Rapidly
10.3.1 is out. Install it before 10.3.2 is comes.
Here's the URL for today's commentary:
http://www.macnightowl.com/index.htm#rapidly
PC Mag: The Product Activation FAQ
"When Microsoft released Office XP, users were suddenly faced with having to "activate" the product in addition to entering a valid product key. That proprietary activation scheme helped Microsoft cut down on piracy, but it raised privacy concerns among users. Much of the fervor eventually died down, however, until late 2002 when Intuit shipped its new version of TurboTax, which also required activation. Outraged users-including many who voiced their anger on our sister site, ExtremeTech-complained that this prevented them from using the product as they had in the past, that it interfered with their PCs, and that it was an imposition in time and resources.
Adding fuel to the fire, Intuit's tech support was hard to find and less than stellar in its response. Intuit will no longer use activation, but with household names such as Adobe, Macromedia, and Symantec all incorporating some kind of digital-rights scheme into many of their latest releases, activation is clearly here to stay. How will this affect your computing life? We give you the answers below."
Read more at:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1373602,00.asp
Microsoft Asks Judge To Invalidate Electronic Signatures To Reduce Their Anti-trust Payout - States MSfreePC
Microsoft has filed legal papers asking Judge Paul H. Alvarado to reject all anti-trust settlement claims submitted with digital signatures. These actions came after MSfreePC, a service designed to assist consumers filing a claim, announced changes so that 10% of all consumer claims would be directed towards competing open source initiatives. Microsoft has submitted a motion in a California court to block consumers from using digital signatures for claims and reject all claims that have been previously completed.
"The MSfreePC service lives up to the letter and the spirit of the anti- trust settlement by allowing consumers to use modern technology to participate in the claims process and benefitting competitors," said Michael Robertson, chief executive officer of Lindows.com the sponsor of the MSfreePC service ( http://www.MSfreePC.com ). "Microsoft is protesting the same technology that people use to file federal and state taxes, order billions of dollars of merchandise online and that they themselves have used to generate billions in profits. Their actions are a transparent attempt to reduce the amount of monies they will pay out -- monies which will go to help competitors. Since Microsoft keeps a large portion of unclaimed monies and requires the remaining two-thirds to be spent on products which will likely funnel revenues back to Microsoft, they are financially motivated to insist on a paper intensive process which they know few people will complete. Microsoft's true concern is that they might have to actually pay out a significant amount of money and that those funds will fuel competition that has been lacking in the PC industry."
A $1.1 billion anti-trust settlement has been announced with the state of California, but Microsoft will actually pay much less given the structure of the settlement. Consumers have until March to file claims after which time one third of unclaimed monies will be refunded to Microsoft. The remaining balance is given to schools with one half required to be spent solely on PC software. Since Microsoft has monopoly marketshare in the software industry, most of the software purchased will be from Microsoft who will charge the schools full price, but which actually costs just pennies to duplicate CDs. Similarly, the other half of funds will be spent on PCs which will likely come with Microsoft operating system software further reducing Microsoft's payments.
MSfreePC recently announced features of the online service which will distribute 10% of claims to software initiatives which directly compete with Microsoft. Consumers using MSfreePC have an option to direct 10% of their claim to the leading open source initiatives which many believe are reinvigorating competition in the PC business. The choices include Mozilla ( http://www.mozilla.org ), KDE ( http://www.kde.org ), Debian (http://][url=http://www.debian.com]http://]http://www.debian.com]http://[/url] ][url=http://www.debian.com]http://www.debian.com[/url][/url] ), Gnome ( http://www.gnome.org ), and OpenOffice (http://][url=http://www.openoffice.o>g]http://]http://www.openoffice.o>g]http://[/url] ][url=http://www.openoffice.o>g]http://www.openoffice.o>g[/url][/url] ).
Lindows.com intends to vigorously defend a consumer's right to use online technology to file claims. A legal opposition to Microsoft's motion will be submitted within the next two weeks. The court may also elect for oral arguments from the parties after which time a ruling is expected on the validity of MSfreePC. The text of Microsoft's motion follows. Lindows.com opposition will be published once filed with the court. More information concerning the anti-trust settlement can be found at the official website http://www.microsoftcalsettlement.com .
To stay up-to-date on all Lindows.com happenings, visit:
http://][url=http://www.lindows.com/mailings]http://]http://www.lindows.com/mailings]http://[/url] ][url=http://www.lindows.com/mailings]http://www.lindows.com/mailings[/url][/url]
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