Doug, Mtn. View, CA

Apple Bars Palm from iTunes: Is Pre a Threat?

Palm pasted a target on its chest when it pulled off this little stunt. Has anyone stopped to ask "how did Palm manage to open iTunes so that it recognized the Pre" in the first place? No one else has managed to similarly hack iTunes, which begs the question: how did Palm do it? It's no secret that Palm employs some former Apple employees. Example: their CEO. No doubt one or some of them used their knowledge of Apple proprietary source code to open the iTunes door. Anyone want to wager that Palm will NOT sue over this latest Apple retaliatory response? Imagine the fun that Apple lawyers would have during the discovery phase of such a lawsuit!

Microsoft May Be Able to Halt Apple's Music Monopoly

How's that Plays For Sure library coming along, Jack Dee?


On May 14 03:14 PM jack dee wrote:

> I will restate,
>
> The $15 dollar sub covers 3 USERS on 3 Zunes using 3 machines.
>
>
> That is millions of songs for $5 per user...... do the mathes kids,
> MSFT is giving you much much more for much much less.

Apple-Microsoft Ad Wars Heat Up Again

I think the latest ads are the best, most dead-on commercial that Apple has done so far. They properly lampoon Ballmer's position: "there is nothing wrong with Vista, and we'll prove it with $500 million of advertising." And let us not forget, as Peter021 properly points out, that Apple is not Microsoft's direct competitor. Apple makes virtually no money off its OSX sales. Apple sells hardware. Microsoft sells software and operating systems. By responding to Apple's ads as it does, Microsoft only acknowledges Apple's superior advantage: a seemless blend of hardware AND software. Microsoft cannot offer that as a product. They are off-message and they are toast.

What better way to acknowledge this than the annoying TV commercial from FinallyFast.com, a utility to "speed up PCs that have slowed down." The first two machines they show in the ad? An iMac and a G4 iBook! Later on we see the iMac's white keyboard, then we finally see a "fixed and now faster PC" on the iMac's screen. Redmond, we have a problem: www.youtube.com/watch?...

Microsoft Gets the Blogging Community

There's a good reason why "no known bloggers work at Apple." Jobs insists on lsecrecy for everything he does. That is indisputable. All of his employees are cloaked under a similar veil of secrecy. If they openly blogged, I think, they'd be gone pretty quickly. You or I may not like it, but that's just the way it is. SJ's attitude is to let his products and service do the talking, not some loose-lipped employee who might let some internal secrets go out the door.

Apple's Extraordinary Edge

You missed my (admittedly) sarcastic point, Marcel. What Apple sells is SIZZLE. Some people desire it, others don't.

The market speaks for itself: there are lots of people, like the appropriately-named Blah, who are quite content with beige rectangular boxes (and horrid clothing, to use my example). But to compare that ugly piece of crud (my description) to an iMac and say "they are equal" demonstrates the difference between the two customer types. I gag when I see a PC; not one has any sense of style. I'd never allow one in my house. I feel the same about OSX vs. Vista. You may disagree. Fine. But that's my way of explaining the differences that this article alludes to.

If you're content to drag files around to play music, then by all means, a cheap, hard-to-use music player will suit you just fine. That's where the mp3 business was in 2001. But if you want to manage your music with a sense of elegance and style, Apple offers it to you via iTunes. I didn't say Blah was wrong in this regard, only that he isn't an Apple customer and as such had nothing constructive to offer about this piece. I believe he used the term "idiot" to describe me and my ilk. He opened the floodgates, not me.

However, Blah clearly doesn't know what he's talking about in regards to Macs either, when he drags out this old hit piece from ZD-Net, written by a former ballet dancer. Even the "report" cited in the ZD-Net article said “PLEASE NOTE: The statistics provided should NOT be used to compare the overall security of products against one another." Just more fluff from the Microsoft camp trying desperately to defend its rapidly crumbling empire.

Apple's Extraordinary Edge

Hey Blah: In response to your idiotic "vulnerabilities" claim, see if you've got the guts to read this retort:

www.roughlydrafted.com.../

You sound like the stylish kind of guy who is content to wear his black socks with his brown dress shoes while wearing his old burmuda shorts on a summer's day. I believe you when you way you're just as happy with a $600 laptop as you would be with an $1100 Macbook (if you're going to compare "cheap PC laptop" to a Mac laptop, at least choose the "cheap Mac laptop" for your comparison). Enjoy your stripped down, no-power Vista OS on that cheap PC laptop while you're at it. I'm surprised you gave up your old Sony Walkman cassette player for a modern MP3 player. Your discount $50 pink Zune probably matches your wardrobe.

I'm glad that you're a vocal PC-head. You're the best kind of advertisement for Apple products that Apple could only hope to buy.