Applelinks.com Moore’s Tech Web Reader - Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Moore’s Tech Web Reader - Tuesday, October 2, 2007

By Charles W. Moore Tuesday, October 02, 2007.
Filed under: News � Tech-Industry �

1636

The Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, and the Apple UMPC
The Future of Mac OS X on PowerPC
Open source development goes Mac-tastic
When does Boot Camp Beta expire?
Microsoft shouts 'Long Live XP' - Extends XP sales as market snubs Vista
Mac Installed Base Hits 6.6% in September
Safari Gains Ground in Browser Wars
Landmark Music Download Trial Starts Today
Record Industry vs Apple vs Amazon vs Consumers
Seagate Momentus 5400.2 SATA Laptop Drive Premature Failures Reported In MacBooks
Oh-No! My Mom is Getting a Mac
Apple's iBrick Episode Should Be A Corporate Branding Disaster
iMac (Mid 2007): About new startup tones
About firmware updates for Intel-based Macs
iDigital Buys Apple Distribution Rights In Israel
PC Mag: 10 Great Gadgets to Stay Fit
The Mac Night Owl: Is Microsoft Office 2008 Too Little, Too Late?

___

The Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, and the Apple UMPC

AppleMatters' James R. Stoup says:

I am beginning to think that the iPhone euphoria has finally gotten to some bloggers out there because I keep reading ridiculous stories about Apple and their fabled UMPC (that’s Ultra Mobile Personal Computer for those of you who are acronymly-challenged). Both CNet and AppleInsider are convinced that we are mere months away from seeing the first glimpse of this device. Why suddenly people think that a useless product with fundamental flaws and no real market can succeed if only Apple makes it is beyond me. Guess what? Apple won’t be making an “OS X Tablet” or a “New & Improved Newton” anytime soon, so stop battling the forces of reality and just accept that fact.

You can check it out at:
http://www.applematters.com/index.php/section/comments/apple-umpc/

For some contrary-minded views on this topic, see my column �PhoneBook� or �ThinBook?� - Crossover MacBook Pro Speculation Gains Traction by clicking here.

The Future of Mac OS X on PowerPC

MacObserver's John Martellaro says:

Whenever Apple comes out with a major new release of its OS, some Macintosh hardware gets left behind. While Leopard includes support for PowerPC Macs, it's worth looking at Apple's history to see if Mac OS X 10.6 will abandon the entire PowerPC line, according to Daniel Dilger at Roughly Drafted.

"Previous versions of Apple's OS have drawn the line for officially supported Macs based on practical considerations, rather than just being arbitrary or artificial. Here's what the past suggests for Mac OS X Leopard and the version that comes after it," Mr. Dilger wrote.

It turns out that there are some fairly frequently used metrics for deciding whether a new OS version needs to leave a line of hardware behind. By looking at how Apple has done this going all the way back to System 7 in 1996, it's possible to make a good prediction about what Mac OS X 10.6 will support.....

For the full commentary visit here:
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2007/10/01.13.shtml

Open source development goes Mac-tastic

The Register's Phil Manchester reports:

There is no small irony in the prospect that Apple's Macintosh - arguably the ultimate in closed and proprietary systems, at least until the Intel alliance - could become the open source development platform of choice.

The Register has spotted increasing numbers of Macs at open source developer events during the last year. And next month should see the long-awaited (and much delayed) full release of Mac OS X 10.5 which Steve Jobs has been bigging up all year as the "most compliant" Posix/Unix implementation.

For the full report visit here:
http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2007/10/01/mac_open_source_java/

When does Boot Camp Beta expire?

A new Apple Knowledge Base article says:

As indicated in the license agreement for Boot Camp Beta, the Boot Camp Beta program expires when Mac OS 10.5 Leopard becomes available publicly in October, 2007.

Boot Camp Beta 1.2 or earlier expiration

The license to use Boot Camp Beta 1.2 or earlier expires on September 30, 2007 (2007-09-30). Boot Camp Assistant Beta will no longer open after expiration.

To continue using Boot Camp Beta for Microsoft Windows on your Intel-based Mac, you'll need to update to Boot Camp Beta 1.4, until Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is available.

Boot Camp Beta 1.3, 1.4 expiration

The license to use Boot Camp Beta expires when Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is available to the public. To continue using Boot Camp at that time, upgrade to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

Important: Apple does not provide technical phone support for using Boot Camp Beta, burning the Macintosh Drivers CD, or installing Windows. Support is available on Apple's website. Fee-based support agreements are not available for Boot Camp Beta.

For more information, visit:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306583

Microsoft shouts 'Long Live XP' - Extends XP sales as market snubs Vista

The Register's Joe Fay reports:

Microsoft's dream of a Vista only world moved farther out on the horizon yesterday as the software firm admitted it would extend sales of Windows XP by another five months.

XP was supposed to be off the vendor's price list by the end of January 2008. Now it will stick around until the end of the second quarter. The cut down Starter edition for very low end machines will stay on Microsoft's price list till 2010....

The problem is, while Microsoft used to have punters queuing around the block to buy a shrink-wrapped copy of its latest OS, this time it's remaining copies of a six year old product that they're carrying to the check-out.

For the full report visit here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/28/microsoft_xp_deadline/

Mac Installed Base Hits 6.6% in September

Apple 2.0's Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports:

The installed base of Apple computers rose nearly 6.7% in the month of September to 6.6% of personal computers, driven largely by a one-month 12.7% increase in Intel-based Macs, according to market research released today by Net Applications Inc.

During the same period, machines running Microsoft (MSFT) Windows actually lost share, despite a sharp one-month growth in Windows Vista numbers.

For the full report visit here:
http://blogs.business2.com/apple/2007/10/mac-installed-b.html

Safari Gains Ground in Browser Wars

Apple 2.0's Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports:

Apple's Safari made the biggest gains in September among mainstream Web browsers, according to new research released today by Net Applications Inc.

Although Microsoft's (MSFT) Internet Explorer still dominates the category, Safari's market share rose nearly 7.7% for the month and now represents better than 5% of the traffic on the Internet.....

For the full report visit here:
http://blogs.business2.com/apple/2007/10/safari-gains-gr.html

Landmark Music Download Trial Starts Today

The Associated Press reports:

A group of record companies says Jammie Thomas illegally shared everything from Enya to Swedish death metal online. Tuesday, she will become the first of 26,000 people sued by the recording industry to take the case to trial.

The Brainerd, Minn., resident is accused of illegally sharing 1,702 songs for free on a file-sharing network. Her trial offers the first chance for both sides in the debate over online music sharing to show a jury its version of the facts.

Thomas is accused of violating the song owners' copyrights. Her lawyer says the record companies haven't even proved she shared the songs.

For the full report click here.

Record Industry vs Apple vs Amazon vs Consumers

TWO A DAY has posted a very long but interesting and insightful chronicle of the music copyright wars:

Once upon a time in a land before time, the music industry was living on Cloud 9. Kids and teens saw the record labels as "their" entertainment and spent accordingly. Other than some summer movies geared towards them, only the music industry understood them - every week, there were new singles at $.39 to $.59 - all up & down the dial, there was music they wanted to hear and if you got some extra spending money, there were full albums at $3.99 to $5.99....

The music industry had just finished a great decade where music was clearly a priority in people lives.... All was good - they were probably pulling in 97% of every potential dollar - sure there were some geeks making mix tapes from albums and taping stuff off the air but they were far & few - it took effort and serious time to make a mix tape - after all, once you commit to a cassette tape, you can't just go back and swap out song #8 on side 2 without starting all over and if you just duped it to another cassette, that's an entire generation of hiss and lost fidelity - plus most of these guys (and it was mostly guys) were buying albums by the crate-full anyway so how much were they really losing?....

The ability to convert a CD audio track to a computer track was available fairly early on but when hard drives were barely 30 MB and one song from a CD was about 30 MB, what was really the point?.... the music industry has never had much of a relationship with technology so even if someone had pointed it out to them, since they fear and loathe technology, they could never understand why anyone would embrace it - so as hard drive costs started falling faster and faster - and once the mp3 compression was created - it was a shift of the magnetic poles.

While the RIAA likens downloading to 'shoplifting,' the line is less clear partially because the line is not always clear - if you own the CD, is it okay to download the mp3 because you're too lazy or don't know how to convert your CD? Is okay to download an mp3 of a concert/live version if you can listen to the version free on AOL? Is it okay to download if you own the LP? (what's the time frame of ownership?) Is it okay to download mp3's if the artists says it's okay? Is it okay to do it at college but the CD is at home? Some of these issues are ethical, some are legal issues - that's not the debate here - the debate is that people are doing it. What is the response?...

When the MP3 compression was unleashed … that was when the music industry should've responded.

Instead they ignore it - ultimately, you understand why - they'd been controlling all aspects of distribution and what was this internet thing? It would've required all their brainpower to understand that things were changing......

Their conclusion that everyone is a thief is easier to live with than admit their own truths.

For the full commentary click here.

Seagate Momentus 5400.2 SATA Laptop Drive Premature Failures Reported In MacBooks

MacInTouch reader Steven Gold reports:

This "heads-up" from the data-recovery group where I work:

"I just wanted to drop a quick line out there to give a heads up on a problem I have been seeing more and more frequently at the CDB Data Recovery Center.

I have been noticing that the Seagate Momentus 5400.2 SATA laptop drives from MacBooks (60 GB and up) have been coming in with failures. These hard drive failures are quite severe. When I send these drives out to the facility <<name deleted but *very* well known>> that handles our heavy damage / invasive data recoveries, they are unable to get any data from the drives as well.

For the full report visit here:
http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/harddrives/index.html#d01oct2007

Oh-No! My Mom is Getting a Mac

MyFirstMac's Chris Kerins says:

What do you tell your 70-something mom who occasionally uses MS Office on her work computer when she asks about getting a Mac? Yes, they are easy to use, but are Macs easier than what she already knows, even though she knows very little?

I've often said that if a task in Windows takes 5 steps, it might only take 3 on a Mac, but if 3 is too many, neither will help much.

Now, I think my mom is in the 2 steps or less category. What do we do do for the folks for which a computer has been a souped up typewriter but now they want a little more? Is a Mac the right answer?

For the full commentary visit here:
http://www.myfirstmac.com/index.php/mac/articles/oh-no-my-mom-is-getting-a-mac

Apple's iBrick Episode Should Be A Corporate Branding Disaster

Seeking Alpha's Felix Salmon says:

It seems that it's possible to downgrade a bricked iPhone and get it back into its pre-bricked state, complete with third-party apps and everything. But really. Is this whole cat-and-mouse game really necessary? The geeks, the early adopters, the people who make incredibly enthusiastic videos and post them prominently on nytimes.com - is it really necessary to piss them all off like this? It might be true, as Jack Schofield says, that there are no user groups for Maytags and that Steve Jobs wants his products to be just that simple. But the worst that happens if you fiddle around with your Maytag is that you break it yourself: Maytag themselves aren't going to try their very best to break it for you if they find out.....

One of the weird things about the whole iBrick fiasco is that Apple has historically been quite good at turning a blind eye to the kind of things that the most enthusiastic and sophisticated parts of its customer base get up to. Its latest strategy seems to have lots of downside and negligible upside, so why are they doing it?.....

For the full commentary click here.

iMac (Mid 2007): About new startup tones

A new Apple Knowledge Base article says:

iMac (Mid 2007) computers, unlike other Macintosh computers, do not use the power LED to indicate there is an issue. iMac (Mid 2007) computers use tones instead.

For more information, visit:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306396

About firmware updates for Intel-based Macs

Learn how to locate, download, and apply a firmware update to an Intel-based Macintosh computer. Firmware updates can be found at Apple Downloads or by choosing Software Update from the Apple menu.

You can check it out at:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303364

iDigital Buys Apple Distribution Rights In Israel

Globes [online], Israel s Michal Yoshai reports:

iDigital Ltd., owned by Nehemia Peres, has bought the exclusive franchise rights in Israel for Apple Inc. products from Yeda Computers and Software (Israel 1982) Ltd., which has had the franchise for 25 years. Market sources had predicted in July that Peres would buy the franchise.

For the full report visit here:
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/DocView.asp?did=1000259212&fid=1725

PC Mag: 10 Great Gadgets to Stay Fit

Gadgets like an iPod-friendly treadmill or under-the-desk foot exerciser let you get your exercise while still performing your geeky activities.

To read more, go to:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2190242,00.asp

The Mac Night Owl: Is Microsoft Office 2008 Too Little, Too Late?

On or about January 15, 2008, according to current plan, Microsoft's Mac Business Unit will release the long-awaited - and somewhat delayed - Office 2008 for the Mac in the U.S. They are busy touting its new features, which include updated artwork, a page layout feature for Word, and various and sundry tools for easier organization and access.