< B>iPod back in French shops Apple has fixed the sound issues that prevent the iPod from being sold in France. As reported earlier this week, the iPodis maximum sound level (104dB) exceeded French health limits, which limit portable music players to an output of 100dB. Apparently, Apple designed the iPod to conform to EU…
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iPod Pulled From French Shelves Due To Sound Output
T he iPod, although it has been on the French market for over a year now, can no longer be sold to French customers. French public health laws, which are stricter than the E.U. guidelines to which Apple has apparently adhered in this regard, stipulate that portable music players can only have a maximum sound…
Apple Europe News Briefs - Five Years Of Steve Jobs, Unix Gurus On OS X, More
Back from holiday? Back to school? Shake off that creeping autumn depression with a dose of Mac goodness from Europe! Looking back at five years of Steve Jobs SVM Mac has published an analysis of the first five years of Steve Jobs’ reign at Apple. The article gives a good overview of the "Steve Years,"…
Apple Extends iTools-To-.Mac Conversion Registration Until October 14th
Apple has announced an extension for iTools members wanting to convert their existing accounts to .Mac accounts. The company had set September 30th, today, as that deadline, after which iTools accounts would be cleared out, and closed down. The company has extended the deadline to October 14th, instead. Earlier this month, Apple announced that 100,000…
The Back Page - File Swapping Services Find New Ways To Leech Off Others
In the course of covering the RIAA’s and MPAA’s assault of our Fair Use rights, and of the rise and fall of Napster before that, I inevitably get accused of being a stooge for the pirates and the thieves, or of not recognizing that information (and therefore the creative works of artists, movie makers, and…
Mainstream Paper Offers Analysis Of .Mac
A mainstream Maryland newspaper called the Sun Spot has published a fairly comprehensive review of Apple’s .Mac service. The piece includes the history of Apple’s conversion of iTools to .Mac, a breakdown of the services offered, a balanced look at Apple’s conversion rate for .Mac accounts, and a very reasoned analysis of what those services…
The Back Page - Apple's Switch Ad Frightens It Networking Guru
David Kearns is a networking consultant who provides advice to clients, and helps other people write books on networking. For instance, he has co-writing status on Peter Norton’s Complete Guide to Networking. If you are wondering what scares a person who provides consultation services in Silicon Valley, take a look at an editorial he penned…
Larry Ellison Resigns From Apple's Board, Cites Time Commitment
[Update: The story below has been updated with information concerning Larry Ellison’s yacht racing.] In a surprise announcement, Apple said today that Oracle CEO Larry Ellison has resigned from Apple’s Board of Directors. Mr. Ellison is a close friend of Apple CEO Steve Jobs, and was one of the first people that Mr. Jobs personally…
New Gateway Ad Leaves the Realm Of The iMac, Takes Aim At Dell
T he Mac community has reacted with a great gnashing of teeth, pulling of hair, and terrible, angst-ridden wailing as Gateway launched an ad campaign aimed specifically at Apple and the iMac. That campaign used a study, which has been widely criticized in the Mac community as being inaccurate and misleading, to suggest that the…
Microsoft Not Complying With Antitrust Deal, Says Watchdog
An analysis by ProComp, an industry group formed to keep an eye on anti-competitive behavior, alleges that Microsoft has not kept up its end of the bargain when it comes to the deal it struck with the federal government. The analysis, sent in the form of a letter to the Justice Department and the Attorney-General,…
Apple Rises Amidst Market Losses, A Brief Look At Education Market
< B>Tuesday Recap The markets moved lower on Tuesday due in part to disappointing economic numbers. This time it was the governmentis gauge of industrial production that came in below expectations. On Tuesday, fast food giant MacDonaldis issued an earnings warning and announced that it is cutting the number of new store openings, reducing the…
New Logo Announced For Copy Protected CDs
I nternational recording industry body IFPI has released a logo to be placed on copy-protected CDs. The logo, which is an optional mark, has been released in order to distinguish them from regular CDs. According to the IFPIis press release, the logo has been supplied in accordance with their recommendations that copy-protected CDs should be…
Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Internet Access
Youid be pretty angry because, without your permission, itis stealing. So you go back inside and fire up your Airport equipped laptop and switch over to that new wireless network that popped up the other day. You donit know where itis coming from but man, can you download files from the internet fast and you…
Hiawatha Bray Asks "Why Switch? Do You Hate Your PC That Much?"
In what we see as an interesting, as in peculiar, article, Hiawatha Bray, long-time tech pundit for the Boston Globe, has written a piece called "Apple’s good, but that’s no reason to switch," that asks his readers why they should Switch to the Mac. The interesting aspect comes out of Mr. Bray’s technique for showing…
On Xserve: Is Jobs Nuts Or What?
S teve Jobs is one crazy guy. Absolutely bonkers. Heis pissed off people with .Mac, angered others by charging full price for OS X 10.2, and heis making a foray into the server market in a time when most computer makers are pulling back on market exploration. Such behavior can only be the result of…
Buyers Return To Wall Street, AAPL Pushed Up 3%
< B>Wednesday Morning Trading The markets moved higher starting with the opening bell on Wednesday as bargain hunters scavenged the Street following Tuesdayis dramatic sell-off. On Tuesday, few stocks were left unscathed as investors returned from the last holiday weekend of the summer and were abruptly greeted by disappointing numbers from the economyis manufacturing sector.…
Country Of Greece Outlaws All Computer Games. Seriously
I n the midst of the assault on Fair Use in the US by the MPAA and the RIAA, and the assault on personal freedoms and privacy in the pursuit of security, itis sometimes easy to forget that other countries have their own bits of complete insanity. Fortunately, a ZDNet article reminded us of this…
Adobe Sues Over Emdedded Fonts In PDF Files, Company On Receving End Of DMCA Complaint
A dobe has announced a lawsuit against the International Typeface Corporation (ITC) concerning a dispute over PDF files. Adobeis Portable Document Format (PDF) allows users to design a document that can be read by anyone on any platform with a PDF reader. Fonts, images, and formatting are all embedded in the document itself, ensuring that…
Apple To Enter Best Buy For Third Time, Retailer To Sell iPod
Third time’s the charm, or so Apple appears to have said to Best Buy. Apple has entered into an agreement to sell its products at Best Buy for a third time. The company will be selling the iPod, its very popular MP3 player at both Best Buy’s retail outlets and Web site. Apple used to…
Boost That Legacy With Some Jag Juice
Other World Computing, a leading provider of products and services for the Macintosh marketplace, today announced the availability of version 2.2 of its industry-acclaimed utility, XPostFacto©. The software utility developed by Ryan Rempel and exclusively licensed through OWC, allows owners of computers unsupported by Apple to install and boot the latest Apple operating system, Apple…
Apple: 100,000 Copies Of Jaguar Sold, 50,000 People Visited 35 Apple Stores
A pple has released official numbers from its hugely successful "100 Minutes to Jaguar" party (the event has been posthumously renamed "100 Minutes of Jaguar") this weekend. Apple opened up its 35 retail Apple Stores at 10:20 PM this past Friday night for pre-sales of Jaguar. According to the company, some 50,000 people attended the…
Forbes Reports On... Steve Jobs' Wardrobe
Forbes Magazine has taken a closer look into an issue that many Mac users, and indeed tech observers everywhere, find important, Steve Jobs attire. Seriously. As an offshoot of a series on the best dressed billionaires (link leads to a slide show), Forbes has published a short series on those high tech honchos whose attire…
MacPlay Says Soldier Of Fortune II: Double Helix Has Gone Gold
MacPlay, a subsidiary of United Developers, announced today that Soldier of Fortune II®: Double Helix for the Macintosh has gone gold and that the product will begin shipping to retail within 2 – 3 weeks. Developed by Raven Software and Activision, Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix drops players into the ranks of Americais shadow…
XLR8 Closes It's Doors While EchoFX Releases InterView 2.2.2
Today, EchoFX, a Macintosh software developer, announced the immediate availability of InterView software for OS X version 2.2.2. This latest release fixes installation issues and corrects minor incompatibilities in the software. Last week after XLR8 ceased business, EchoFX announced it would offer continued OS X software support for the XLR8 InterView USB analog video capture…