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Microsoft is ready to spend hundreds of millions of dollars over several years on its Zune products to catch up with the iPod. According to CNET News, Microsoft sees its music player and download service as a long-term investment. Robbie Bach, Microsoft’s president of the Entertainment and Devices Division, said “We think of this in…

Apple Computer has terminated its Apple Discussions Hosts, the forum moderators that monitor and moderate the company’s user discussion boards. A source involved with Apple Discussions, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Mac Observer that management at Apple has questioned the value of the discussion boards. The end result, however, has been a marked…

France’s Constitutional Council late Thursday released a report declaring unconstitutional some aspects of the country’s so-called “iPod law.” According to an International Herald Tribune article published on the New York Times’ Web site, the 1789 Declaration on Human Rights was referenced in the council’s conclusion that property protections were being violated by the law. Reporter…

It has been common knowledge for sometime now that, while Redmond based Microsoft owns and/or controls much of the worldwide PC market, the industry looks to Apple for clues as to what’s next in the hardware and software world. From servers that serve powerfully yet quietly and with no fuss, to integrated applications and hardware…

Microsoft is working to change the beige-box image most PCs suffer from by offering manufacturers its own how-to kit. According to BusinessWeek, Microsoft is advising PC makers to design cases with “accelerated curves” and “purposeful contrast.” The colors Microsoft’s kit calls for are obsidian (a shade of black) and ice (translucent white). The booklet included…

As part of his 1,680-page book Mac OS X Internals: A Systems Approach, author Amit Singh produced an in-depth history of Apple’s operating systems. Since he had to discard much of the material while whittling down the first chapter to a manageable length, Mr. Singh has decided to make “A Technical History of Apple’s Operating…

Thirty percent of mid-to-large-sized businesses in Canada have banned MP3 players, including the iPod, at work because of data theft fears. That number comes from an Ipsos Reid poll conducted on behalf of Sun Microsystems of Canada. In addition, 49% of those surveyed also prevent personal laptops and USB key drives from entering the workplace.…

As the iPod’s popularity has soared, so have the fortunes of businesses dedicated to refurbishing and repairing the MP3 players. Some of them, such as PodSwap.com, allow customers to trade in used iPods — working or not — toward the price of new or refurbished iPod. In 18 months, PodSwap.com has taken in 5,000 iPods,…

According to a survey released this week by Kelton Research, 80% of American adults between the ages of 18 and 64 would give up their iPod rather than forfeit wireless Internet access. Similarly, when faced with a choice between their home telephone and their home Wi-Fi network, 79% opted for the latter. Looking at demographics,…

The flat panel display (FPD) market for computers is expected to hit US$6 billion this year and $12 billion by 2009, according to the research firm DisplaySearch. As MacNewsWorld pointed out, that bodes well for Apple, which last week moved to an all-LCD computer lineup, a first in the industry. Robert Andreas, a senior director…

Thomas W. Hazlett, a professor of law and economics at George Mason University, has written an editorial for the Financial Times in which he implored Europe’s anti-trust regulators to “listen to reason” when dealing with iTunes. “While the [new French] law allows Apple to retain iTunes exclusivity if it gains copyright permission, this escape hatch…

There are several ways to copy a file from one Mac to another, like email, portable hard drives, USB Flash drives, and networks. But what do you do when you want to swap a file with someone, and none of those options are available? If both Macs have AirPort built in, make a computer to…

This past January, Apple filed ten new iPod designs that were published by the European Trademarks and Designs office on March 14. However, as Macsimum News pointed out in its coverage of the filing, that office is different from the EU’s Patent Office, which means no report was included describing the functionality of the designs.…

Two lawsuits were filed last week against Microsoft, claiming that its anti-piracy initiative Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) is in violation of consumer protection laws in California and Washington, according to MacCentral. Released last July, WGA connects with Microsoft’s servers and delivers data about the hardware and software on specific computers, with the goal of alerting…