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FYI: Critical MS Excel flaw dings Mac users
by billing 17 Jul '07

17 Jul '07

...from: http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=379&tag=nl.e622 July 13th, 2007 Critical MS Excel flaw dings Mac users Posted by Ryan Naraine @ 12:34 pm Microsoft has re-released the critical MS07-036 bulletin to add protection for Mac OS X users. When the bulletin was originally released in this month’s Patch Tuesday batch, there was no mention of Mac users being at risk but the bulletin was reissued late Thursday night with a note that all three vulnerabilities affect the Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac software. The Office 2004 for Mac portion of the bulletin is rated “important” across the board for all three flaws. A successful attack could lead to remote code execution on the affected system. The reissued bulletin also includes updated File Manifest information for Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007. http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx?pid=download&location=/ mac/download/Office2004/Office2004_1136.xml or http://preview.tinyurl.com/2cjvfb

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Aperture - Free Seminars from Apple
by Doug Hamilton 13 Jul '07

13 Jul '07

Hello to All: Apple has just announced two free seminars in Winnipeg on August 15, 2007, on their Aperture digital photography workflow application. The seminar topics and related links are For the Wedding and Event Photography from 9am to 12pm http://www.seminars.apple.com/goToEvent.html?id=64752 Streamlining your RAW Photography Workflow from 7pm to 9pm http://www.seminars.apple.com/goToEvent.html?id=64852 Please forward this message on to anyone whom you think would be interested. For those of you working at or attending PrairieView School of Photography, could you please forward this message on to other students or staff you think would be interested. I am aware that Don's Photo is partnering with Apple on this one, but if you have any friends/contacts at PhotoCentral please feel free to send this information to them. Regards, Doug ------------- Doug Hamilton, BA, MA, APP Senior Computer Consultant Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba 204-474-6196 (Ph.) 204-474-7556 (Fax) http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/

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INTEREST: Microsoft/Hotmail suing spammers
by billing 13 Jul '07

13 Jul '07

...from: http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/05/25/stock/index.php Microsoft sues alleged stock scammers By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service Hoping to tackle the growing problem of pump-and-dump stock scams Microsoft has quietly filed lawsuits against at least three alleged perpetrators who it says used its MSN Hotmail networks to promote stocks. Hotmail has “received large volumes of unsolicited commercial e-mail messages” promoting stocks for companies such as Distributed Power, TGC Ventures, China Biolife Enterprises, and Irwin Resources, according to court documents filed during April and May in King County Superior Court in Seattle. Microsoft charges the defendants with violating the federal CAN-SPAM act as well as Washington state consumer protection laws, and is seeking unspecified damages, according to the filings. Pump-and-dump e-mail scams are a form of fraud where the criminals purchase stock in a company — typically an inexpensive penny stock — and then promote the equity in millions of unsolicited email messages. The technique is one of the more lucrative spamming practices, and has been “the fastest growing area in spam” over the past few months, said Craig Schmugar, a threat research manager with McAfee’s Avert Labs. Pump-and-dump spam has not only taken up resources and threatened the smooth functioning of Hotmail, but it “continues to result in significant costs to Microsoft,” the court filings state. Microsoft executives were not immediately available to comment for this story. Because Microsoft does not know the name of the spammers behind the unsolicited e-mails, it has filed the lawsuits as “John Doe” cases, giving it the power to subpoena information in the case and ultimately name the parties responsible when they are uncovered. It’s the latest move in the cat and mouse game between pump-and-dump spammers and the technology companies trying to stop them. Pump-and-dump scams are gaining more attention from criminals and companies like Microsoft for one simple reason: they work. Researchers at Purdue and Oxford Universities recently examined] the dynamics of pump-and-dump and found that spammers could realize 5 percent returns in a single day. Because these scams are so lucrative, they’ve attracted some of the most technically competent spammers to develop new techniques, said Adam O’Donnell, a senior research scientist at Cloudmark. “The pump and dump schemes are basically driving spam research and development,” he said. [...] With the jump in pump-and-dump e-mail, O’Donnell said it’s no surprise that Microsoft has brought the lawsuits. “Hotmail is heavily used and is viewed by the Web community as one of the most challenging spam environments right now,” he said.

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INTEREST: Microsoft to spend $1.15B on -$6B sales of XBOX 360
by billing 07 Jul '07

07 Jul '07

...from: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/06/business/06soft.html? th=&adxnnl=1&emc=th&adxnnlx=1183781121-q74ntW7AImNEg5Ocy39D3w OR http://preview.tinyurl.com/29pzvl Microsoft to Spend $1.15 Billion for Xbox Repairs By ERIC A. TAUB Published: July 6, 2007 LOS ANGELES, July 5 — In what may be one of the costliest consumer warranty repairs in history, Microsoft announced on Thursday that it would spend up to $1.15 billion to repair failing Xbox 360 game machine consoles. While the company would not say how many units were failing, Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, said that there have been an “unacceptable high number of repairs.” The majority of Xbox 360 owners, he said, have not experienced hardware failure. Company officials said that Microsoft had sold 11.6 million Xbox 360 units by the end of June, shy of the 12 million units the company had predicted. The Xbox 360, which first went of sale in November 2005, is currently the best-selling game machine in the United States, according to NPD, a market research firm. The size of the anticipated repair bill suggests that a third to as many as half of the machines are flawed. Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., said it would take a charge of $1.05 billion to $1.15 billion against earnings in the quarter ended June 30. Consumers know they have a problem if three red flashing lights appear on the console. Gamers on online forums have been referring to the event as “the Red Ring of Death” because the machine then shuts down. The company declined to explain the nature of the failure, but said that it was not caused by a single problem in the console, which it said contained 1,700 components and 500 million transistors. The company also said there were no health or safety concerns involved. The problem began to appear over the last three to four months, Mr. Bach said, after “significant usage” of the consoles. He said the company has taken steps to correct the problem in new devices. Microsoft said it would extend the warranty of the game console to three years to customers worldwide. Previously, products sold in the United States were covered by a one-year warranty, while Xbox 360 units sold in Europe had a two-year warranty. In addition, customers who have had their consoles repaired because of the “three flashing lights” problem will be reimbursed for the cost of the repairs. Microsoft has succeeded in establishing the Xbox brand against the better known Sony PlayStation and other game machines. The Xbox and its successor, the Xbox 360, was the software maker’s first major foray into hardware. Although sales are small relative to the rest of Microsoft’s revenue, the Xbox has been an important venture for the company and was viewed by many analysts as Microsoft’s attempt to compete with the likes of Sony and Apple for control of electronics and entertainment within homes. The device can be used to access the Internet and view movies. Microsoft said its entertainment and devices division reported an operating loss of $315 million on $929 million in revenue for the three-month period that ended in March, and analysts have estimated that the company lost about $6 billion getting a foothold in the game machine industry. A new Xbox 360 with a 20-gigabyte hard drive sells for about $400, but other versions cost about $300. The announcement comes on the eve of the E3 Media and Business Summit, the video-game industry’s major trade show, to be held next week in Los Angeles. “This is bound to affect discussions between Microsoft and its developers and retailers,” said Richard Doherty, a partner in the research company Envisioneering Group.

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INTEREST: UCBerkeley CIO on digital demands and challenges of protecting data in an open institution
by billing 05 Jul '07

05 Jul '07

...from: http://video.zdnet.com/CIOSessions/?p=170 Technology challenges in academia In this wide-ranging interview, Shelton Waggener, the CIO of the University of California at Berkeley, talks about meeting the digital demands of its tech-savvy student population, the challenges of protecting data in an open institution, and innovative technologies being developed on campus.

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INTEREST: How to get all your telephones (or none) to ring at the same time... Now from Google.
by billing 05 Jul '07

05 Jul '07

...from: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Google/?p=627&tag=nl.e622 July 2nd, 2007 Grand Central acquired by Google for $50 million? Posted by Garett Rogers @ 2:28 pm Michael Arrington was right when he heard GrandCentral was either in talks, or has already been acquired by Google. Today Google announced the acquisition on their official blog, though the terms have not yet been disclosed. If Arrington was correct, it’s safe to presume it was around the $50 million dollar mark. What does this mean? Well, we can only speculate, but it could have a huge impact in several areas for Google. First, imagine having a single, always-on, always-ready, forever available, telephone number that is tied to every phone number you currently have. By signing up, you will have simplified your life and that of anybody else who tries to contact you. Now imagine having that single phone number tied to your Google Talk instant messenger and Gmail. You can receive phone calls directly on your computer from anyone and listen to voicemail right in Gmail — the latter of which, interestingly enough, can already be used today. The service is currently now in private beta — you will need an invitation to set up a new account now. You will also find that it only works for American phone numbers so far. There is no word on upcoming features or plans to expand to other countries at this time. What is GRAND CENTRAL? (from: http://www.grandcentral.com/support/ howitworks/) Screen Callers Know who's calling and screen unknown callers ListenIn Hear why someone is calling before taking the call Call Record Record calls on the fly and access recordings online Block Callers Unwanted callers won't be able to reach you anymore Notifications Receive voicemail notifications via email or SMS Ring Different Phones One number that rings different phones based on who's calling Greetings Personalize your voicemail greetings by caller or group RingShare Go beyond the ring and choose ringback tones for your callers WebCall Button Let people call you from a web page without showing your number CallSwitch Switch phones in the middle of a call Click2Call Call from your addressbook and save your typing Mobile Access Visual voicemail for your mobile phone What does GRAND CENTRAL look like? (from: http://www.grandcentral.com/ howitworks/mobile_inbx) Wayne I wonder what it will look like on an iPhone? ::-)

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INTEREST: monthly iPhone costs; Rogers not carrying iPhone
by billing 20 Jun '07

20 Jun '07

Apple has already announced the US pricing for the iPhone (US$499 for the 4MB model, and US$599 for the 8MB) but what would the monthly operating costs be. A journalist has put together his approximation: If purchased from ATT/Cingular, the monthly iPhone costs have been estimated to be: - AT&T 450 minute individual plan - US$39.99/month (There may be a minimum required voice plan to get the iPhone.) - Unlimited data plan - US$39.99 (final data price still unknown for iPhone) - Estimated monthly taxes and fees - US$15 - Total cost of montly services - US$94.98 Just for comparison, similar service from Rogers Communications in Winnipeg would be: - Rogers Business Plan 500 (500 minutes) - C$50 - Unlimited data plan - doesn't seem to exist. They do have 5MB/month for $5.00 and 10MB/month for $10.00 (each additional MB costs 3 ¢ with, it seems, no cap on the charges. There is also a BlackBerry plan for $95 with 350 Weekday + Unlimited Evenings & Weekends and 50 MB/month. Each MB over the initial 50 is $7 with, apparently, no cap on the charges. Sources for the above information: ATT pricing: http://blogs.zdnet.com/mobile-gadgeteer/?p=400 Rogers pricing: - cell phone plan: http://www.shoprogers.com/business/wireless/ plans_services/business_plans.asp? shopperID=RGS2RJ6DGNUV9PKNXF1ER64K99GC4PNF&plan=business&cat=1&typ=1? shopperID=Q0VQA923PLXQ8KCF85F84UA1LX88DHK0& - OR the tinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/yoe4fg - mobile internet plan: http://www.shoprogers.com/store/wireless/ services/voice/navigate-mobile-internet.asp? shopperID=3GGLJL1KL8VJ9ME6N2GJ7RQELEKU8UCD - OR the tinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/ysr3pm BlackBerry plan pricing: http://www.shoprogers.com/business/wireless/ plans_services/business_plans.asp? shopperID=W6053CQGDAC99N2WPV9HXM3UBU2SAD30&plan=blackberryvoicenemail&ca t=3&typ=2 - OR the tinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/ywj4xz = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = ...from: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM. 20070617.wiphone0617/BNStory/Technology/home Why you can't buy Apple's new phone (in Canada) CATHERINE MCLEAN Globe and Mail Update June 17, 2007 at 9:06 PM EDT The most hyped consumer electronics device in years will make its debut on June 29, but Apple Inc. [AAPL-Q]'s iPhone will be conspicuously absent from Canadian store shelves. Sold out? No — just not for sale. [...] Rogers Communications Inc. [RCI.B-T], recently admitted little was happening on that front. "The truth is we aren't very far with Apple," Bill Linton, Rogers' chief financial officer, told a conference last month. "They're concentrating on this launch and the U.S., and when they decide to turn their mind to other markets, we'll be in line." [...]

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FYI: FBI "Operation Bot Roast" (no joke) identifies botnets > 1 million machines
by billing 18 Jun '07

18 Jun '07

...from: http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel07/botnet061307.htm Over 1 Million Potential Victims of Botnet Cyber Crime Today the Department of Justice and FBI announced the results of an ongoing cyber crime initiative to disrupt and dismantle “bot- herders” and elevate the public’s cyber security awareness of botnets. OPERATION BOT ROAST is a national initiative and ongoing investigations have identified over 1 million victim computer IP addresses. The FBI is working with our industry partners, including the CERT Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University, to notify the victim owners of the computers. Through this process the FBI may uncover additional incidents in which botnets have been used to facilitate other criminal activity. A botnet is a collection of compromised computers under the remote command and control of a criminal “botherder.” Most owners of the compromised computers are unknowing and unwitting victims. They have unintentionally allowed unauthorized access and use of their computers as a vehicle to facilitate other crimes, such as identity theft, denial of service attacks, phishing, click fraud, and the mass distribution of spam and spyware. Because of their widely distributed capabilities, botnets are a growing threat to national security, the national information infrastructure, and the economy. “The majority of victims are not even aware that their computer has been compromised or their personal information exploited,” said FBI Assistant Director for the Cyber Division James Finch. “An attacker gains control by infecting the computer with a virus or other malicious code and the computer continues to operate normally. Citizens can protect themselves from botnets and the associated schemes by practicing strong computer security habits to reduce the risk that your computer will be compromised.” The FBI also wants to thank our industry partners, such as the Microsoft Corporation and the Botnet Task Force, in referring criminal botnet activity to law enforcement. Cyber security tips include updating anti‑virus software, installing a firewall, using strong passwords, practicing good email and web security practices. Although this will not necessarily identify or remove a botnet currently on the system, this can help to prevent future botnet attacks. More information on botnets and tips for cyber crime prevention can be found online at www.fbi.gov. The FBI will not contact you online and request your personal information so be wary of fraud schemes that request this type of information, especially via unsolicited emails. To report fraudulent activity or financial scams, contact the nearest FBI office or police department, and file a complaint online with the Internet Crime Complaint Center, www.ic3.gov. To date, the following subjects have been charged or arrested in this operation with computer fraud and abuse in violation of Title 18 USC 1030, including: James C. Brewer of Arlington, Texas, is alleged to have operated a botnet that infected Chicago area hospitals. This botnet infected tens of thousands of computers worldwide. (FBI Chicago); Jason Michael Downey of Covington, Kentucky, is charged with an Information with using botnets to send a high volume of traffic to intended recipients to cause damage by impairing the availability of such systems. (FBI Detroit); and Robert Alan Soloway of Seattle, Washington, is alleged to have used a large botnet network and spammed tens of millions of unsolicited email messages to advertise his website from which he offered services and products. (FBI Seattle) The FBI will continue to aggressively investigate individuals that conduct cyber criminal acts. | Press Releases | FBI Home Page |

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FYI: more "What's coming from Apple?"
by billing 09 Jun '07

09 Jun '07

...from: http://zdnet.com.com/1606-2_2-6189050.html?tag=nl.e622 During a presentation Wednesday in Washington, D.C., Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz said his company's open-source file system, ZFS (Zettabyte File System), will be introduced into Mac OS X [with the release of OS X 10.5]. ...from: http://www.sun.com/software/media/real/zfs_learningcenter/ 06D00555_09_100.rm In this video, Bill Moore (Lead ZFS Engineer at Sun) introduces ZFS and describes how ZFS provides provable data integrity for disk storage and shows how ZFS allows immense storage capacity to any OS which implements ZFS. ...from: http://www.sun.com/2004-0914/feature/ Creating Immense Capacity Sun engineers wondered if the 64-bit capabilities of current file systems will continue to suffice over the next 10 to 20 years. Their answer was no. If Moore's Law holds, in 10 to 15 years people will need a 65th bit. As a 128-bit system, ZFS is designed to support more storage, more file systems, more snapshots, more directory entries, and more files than can possibly be created in the foreseeable future. This scalability also means that storage can be dynamically added to or removed from storage pools without interrupting services, providing new levels of flexibility and availability for globally accessed application services. To efficiently use all of this capacity, file systems grow and shrink automatically as users add or remove data. Administrators can set quotas to limit space consumption and reservations to guarantee future availability of space. ZFS also provides compression to reduce disk space and I/O bandwidth requirements. Logically, the next question is if ZFS' 128 bits is enough. According to Bonwick, it has to be. "Populating 128-bit file systems would exceed the quantum limits of earth-based storage. You couldn't fill a 128-bit storage pool without boiling the oceans." [NOTE: for more info on the "boiling the oceans" comment, see http:// www.hodulik.com/2006/12/18/boiling-the-oceans/] ------------------------------- What is ZFS and how will this affect my disk storage? ...from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zfs In computing, ZFS is a file system (a method of arranging data on computer storage) originally created by Sun Microsystems for the Solaris Operating System. It features high capacity, the integration of the concepts of filesystem and volume management, a novel on-disk structure, lightweight instances, and easy storage pool management. ZFS is implemented as open source software, licensed under the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL). ...from: http://www.sun.com/2004-0914/feature/ The ZFS will provide for disk storage which is/will provide: - Always-valid on-disk state - Consistent, reliable backups - Data rollback to known point in time - Dynamic striping across all devices to maximize throughput - Copy-on-write design makes most disk writes sequential - Multiple block sizes, automatically chosen to match workload - Explicit I/O priority with deadline scheduling - Globally optimal I/O sorting and aggregation - Multiple independent prefetch streams with automatic length and stride detection - Unlimited, instantaneous read/write snapshots - Parallel, constant-time directory operations Or, more simple ZFS delivers virtually unlimited disk storage capacity, provable data integrity, and near-zero administration. ...More details about ZFS: ZFS Storage Integrity, Security, and Scalability - http:// www.sun.com/bigadmin/features/articles/zfs_part1.scalable.html ZFS Learning Center: http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/ zfs_learning_center.jsp Videos describing ZFS: http://www.sun.com/software/media/real/ zfs_learningcenter/high_bandwidth.html

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An interesting article on Macdevcenter
by Mark Rogers 07 Jun '07

07 Jun '07

This looks very interesting. http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2007/06/01/discover-the-power- of-open-directory.html Mark Mark Rogers www: http://web.mac.com/mark_rogers msn: mark underscore rogers at mac dot com

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INTEREST: new announcements on Apple web site
by billing 04 Jun '07

04 Jun '07

- iPhone is coming June 29 (at least in the USA), say the new Apple ads: http://www.apple.com/iphone/ads/ad1/ http://www.apple.com/iphone/ads/ad2/ http://www.apple.com/iphone/ads/ad3/ - YouTube on your AppleTV: http://www.apple.com/appletv/ "Direct-to-Internet With Apple TV, you can watch theatrical trailers from Apple.com on your TV. And soon, you’ll be able to browse and watch YouTube videos on the big screen, too. Coming in June, you can browse and watch thousands of free YouTube videos streaming directly from the Internet. Just sit back and enjoy the show." Wayne

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Word 2007 converter
by Doug Hamilton 15 May '07

15 May '07

Hello, Have you had colleagues or students send you a Word file which you can't open? Did you notice that this file ended with .docx as opposed to the usual .doc ? Well if you do have such a file, what you've got yourself there one of them newfangled Open XML files. Office 2007 (Windows) and the yet unreleased Office 2008 (Macintosh) use a new file format called Open XML. However, Office 2008 isn't slated to ship until sometime in the second half of this year, and Open XML isn't readable by any earlier versions of Word (Windows or Macintosh). Even when Office 2008 does ship, there will be those who may not wish to upgrade. This is where the new Word 2007 Open XML file converter for Macintosh comes in handy. http://www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.aspx?pid=download&location=/ mac/download/Office2004/ConverterBeta.xml Of course, you could always request of the individual who sent you the .docx file, to please resend the file as .doc (ie. they need to use the "Save as" command). Regards, Doug ------------- Doug Hamilton, BA, MA, APP Senior Computer Consultant Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba 204-474-6196 (Ph.) 204-474-7556 (Fax) http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/

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INTEREST: Microsoft dumping US$3 XP Starter Edition to government student programs; One Laptop Per Child program
by billing 24 Apr '07

24 Apr '07

...from: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2007/apr07/04-19UPLaunchPR.mspx Microsoft Announces Commitment to Promote Sustained Social and Economic Opportunity for the Next 5 Billion People Company unveils affordable education suite for young people in developing nations and announces plans for 90 new Innovation Centers to promote local software ecosystems. BEIJING — April 19, 2007 — Microsoft Corp. today unveiled a new commitment to help close the digital divide by creating new products and programs that will help bring social and economic opportunity to the estimated 5 billion people who are not yet realizing the benefits of technology. Through the expansion of Microsoft® Unlimited Potential, the company is renewing and accelerating its long-term commitment to use technology, training and partnerships to transform education, foster local innovation, and enable jobs and opportunities to sustain a continuous cycle of social and economic growth for everyone. “All human beings deserve a chance to achieve their full potential,” said Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft. “Bringing the benefits of technology to the next 5 billion people will require new products that meet the needs of underserved communities; creative, new business approaches that make technology more relevant, accessible and affordable; and close collaboration between local governments, educational institutions and community organizations.” [...] “Computers and connectivity are still too expensive for private ownership by the poor, and applications as well as information resources that are appropriate to this group have been slow to emerge, in part because the poor themselves have not been involved in creating them,” said C.K. Prahalad, author and professor at the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business. “In order to help create the applications and start the business dynamo that unleashes their potential, the people at the bottom of the pyramid need to have reliable, affordable access to technology and to learn computing skills.” Transforming Education To help expand education opportunities worldwide, Microsoft is partnering with government, intergovernmental organizations, academic and industry leaders to facilitate access to high-quality education through dynamic, learner-focused technologies and resources. [...] Through the Partners in Learning program, Microsoft today announced the Microsoft Student Innovation Suite, an affordable and reliable software package for governments purchasing and giving Windows®-based PCs to primary and secondary students for their personal use at home and for schoolwork. The education suite includes Windows XP Starter Edition, Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007, Microsoft Math 3.0, Learning Essentials 2.0 for Microsoft Office, and Windows Live™ Mail desktop. Microsoft will offer this suite in the second half of 2007 for $3 (U.S.) to qualifying governments that purchase and supply PCs directly to students. More information about the offer is available at http://www.microsoft.com/unlimitedpotential/MSIS. [...] ======================================== ...from: http://www.laptop.org/ - the home of the One-Laptop-Per-Child program developed by by Nicholas Negroponte (http://web.media.mit.edu/~nicholas/) with a core of MIT Media Lab veterans. mission Most of the nearly two–billion children in the developing world are inadequately educated, or receive no education at all. One in three does not complete the fifth grade. The individual and societal consequences of this chronic global crisis are profound. Children are consigned to poverty and isolation— just like their parents—never knowing what the light of learning could mean in their lives. At the same time, their governments struggle to compete in a rapidly evolving, global information economy, hobbled by a vast and increasingly urban underclass that cannot support itself, much less contribute to the commonweal, because it lacks the tools to do so. It is time to rethink this equation. Given the resources that poor countries can reasonably allocate to education—sometimes less than $20 per year per pupil, compared to the approximately $7500 per pupil spent annually in the U.S.—even a doubled or redoubled national commitment to traditional education, augmented by external and private funding, would not get the job done. Moreover, experience strongly suggests that an incremental increase of “more of the same”—building schools, hiring teachers, buying books and equipment—is a laudable but insufficient response to the problem of bringing true learning possibilities to the vast numbers of children in the developing world The first countries to sign up for buying the machine (officially dubbed XO") include Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Rwanda, Nigeria and Libya. ...from their FAQ: What is the $100 Laptop, really? The XO is Linux-based, with a dual-mode display—both a full-color, transmissive DVD mode, and a second display option that is black and white, reflective, and sunlight-readable at three times the resolution. The laptop has a 500MHz processor and 128MB of DRAM, with 500MB of Flash memory; it has three USB ports and an SD-card slot for expansion. The laptops have wireless broadband that, among other things, allows them to work as a mesh network; each laptop will be able to talk to its nearest neighbors, creating an ad hoc, local area network. The laptops are designed to be extremely power efficient, enabling the use of innovative power systems (including wind-up). Why not a desktop computer, or—even better—a recycled desktop machine? Desktops are cheaper, but mobility is important, especially with regard to taking the computer home at night. Kids in the developing world need the newest technology, especially really rugged hardware and innovative software. Recent work with schools in Maine has shown the huge value of using a laptop across all of one's studies, as well as for play. Bringing the laptop home engages the family. In one Cambodian village where we have been working, there is no electricity, thus the laptop is, among other things, the brightest light source in the home. Finally, regarding recycled machines: if we estimate 100 million available used desktops, and each one requires only one hour of human attention to refurbish, reload, and handle, that is tens of thousands of work years. Thus, while we definitely encourage the recycling of used computers, it is not the solution for One Laptop per Child. ...from: http://www.laptop.org/vision/progress/ 2007 April First school server deployed. March First mesh network deployed. February B2-Test (Beta 2)machines deployed to children in launch countries. January Rwanda starts out the New Year with a bang by announcing that it, too, will participate in OLPC. 2006 December Uruguay commits to OLPC. November 875 B1-Test (Beta 1)machines roll off the Quanta assembly-line in Shanghai. XO is for real. October Libya announces it has signed up for 1.2 million laptops, one for every school-age child in the nation.

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INTEREST: AppleTV overview, Google Desktop for Macintosh, Apple ships 1 millionth iPod, iPhone speculation, 8 Core MacPro,
by billing 16 Apr '07

16 Apr '07

....and OS X 10.5 delayed....... ========================================== ...from: http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/mwvodcast/2007/04/mwvodcast10/ index.php?lsrc=mwweek Macworld Video: Apple TV interface By Christopher Breen This latest Macworld Video is all about giving you a first-hand look at Apple TV in action. Senior news editor Jonathan Seff puts Apple TV through its paces so you can see how it operates and what its interface looks like. Starting with the main screen of the interface, work our way into the movie screen, and show how a movie plays. There is also a tour the screens for TV shows, music, podcasts, and photos. After a peak at the Settings and Sources screen, things are wrapped up with a look at the trailers and previews feature. --------------------------- ...from: http://www.macworld.com/2007/04/firstlooks/googledesktop/index.php? lsrc=mwweek First Look: Google Desktop (Beta) for the Mac Google’s search application comes to Mac desktops, and we try it out By Dan Moren Love it or hate it, Spotlight is pretty much the de facto choice when it comes to searching your Mac’s files. Until today, that is. Google has released a Mac version of Google Desktop, its desktop search app previously available only to Windows users. Google says its search application and OS X 10.4’s Tiger are complements, not competitors. Still, many Mac users dissatisfied with Spotlight might approach this new product with the following question in mind: By bringing Google’s considerable expertise in all things search-related to bear on your Mac, could Google Desktop outshine Apple’s Spotlight? Let’s take a preliminary look at this application, which you can download for yourself, provided you’re running Mac OS X 10.4. Search party You can summon Google Desktop’s search window by hitting the command key twice in quick succession. (That keyboard shortcut can be changed in the preferences.) Typing a query in the text box will display a live list of results, much as Spotlight does. In my informal tests, Google Desktop seemed zippier than Spotlight, showing results with little or no delay. Google Desktop easily lets you use powerful search operators to narrow down your query. Google Desktop will match searches against files, e-mail messages, addresses, and chat transcripts—by default, the application will display the first ten results but you can shorten that to the first five or expand it the first 15 via Preferences. An icon to the side of each result lets you know the type of file you’ve found and its associated application; selecting any result from the list will open that document in the associated application, just like in Spotlight. For example, if I do a search for “Apple” and click on an e-mail result labeled “Apple eNews,” that e-mail will open in my default e- mail client. At the bottom of the list there’s an option to display all results from your desktop or search the Web with the same string; selecting either of these options will open your default browser and call up the appropriate results. One feature that ought to have Spotlight users (particularly Spotlight detractors) jumping for joy is the ability to use the same query operators that Google.com uses. For example, enclosing a string in quotes will only search for instances of that complete phrase; you can also require or exclude terms with + and -, respectively. (It’s worth noting that Apple plans to add support for boolean logic—using AND, OR, and NOT—in search requests in revamped version of Spotlight to be included in the forthcoming OS X 10.5 update.) Among the most powerful options Google Desktop brings is the caching of deleted files. If you accidentally trashed that report you need for tomorrow’s meeting, you may still be able to recover the content via Google Desktop. What’s your preference? Like Spotlight, Google Desktop builds an index of your files to enable quick searching. Google Desktop’s preferences, which are installed as a preference pane, allows you to choose which volumes are indexed and whether or not you want your Gmail account and web history indexed as well. Indexing begins as soon as you install the application, and while I didn’t notice a substantial slowdown in using Google Desktop, I did notice that the fans on my MacBook kicked into action. A quick check of Activity Monitor showed the indexing processing taking anywhere from 15 to 85 percent of CPU cycles during the initial procedure. By integrating with Google.com, Google Desktop can return results from your Mac whenever you use search on Google. There’s also an option to integrate Google Desktop with Google.com. Once enabled, whenever you search for anything on Google.com, you’ll also be alerted to how many results appear on your own machine. Google says that these results are kept private (even from the company), but you can disable this functionality in Google Desktop’s preferences if you choose. Concerns Since Google Desktop is not drag-and-drop and it doesn’t use Apple’s standard installer, there’s no information about what files are being installed and where. Google Desktop does offer an option for uninstalling via the preference pane. Also, though Google Desktop offers an option of whether or not to display results from deleted files, disabling this option does not prevent those files from being cached—it merely hides the results. Those users who work with sensitive files should be aware of this fact. Naturally, this being a Google app, Google Desktop is still in beta, but in the brief time I’ve used it, I’ve experienced no problems. While it may not offer the same level of integration into the OS that Spotlight has, it seems a more than able competitor when it comes to the nitty-gritty of searching your Mac. Macworld will have a full review of Google Desktop as we get more of a chance to put the application through its paces. ------------------------------------------------------------ ...from: Apple ships 100 millionth iPod By Marguerite Reardon Staff Writer, CNET News.com Published: April 9, 2007, 7:54 AM PDT Apple said last Monday that it has sold its 100 millionth iPod [NOTE: Greg Jowswyak, Apple's VP of iPod World Wide product marketing spoke with Macworld's Philip Michael's about this milestone. In that podcast, Greg stated that, of that 100 million units, 46 million were sold during 2006.] [...] Apple's iTunes Store has seen comparable success in selling items from its catalog of more than 5 million songs, 350 television shows and 400 movies. The company says it has sold more than 2.5 billion songs, 50 million TV shows and 1.3 million movies. [Editor's note: the TV shows and movies are not yet available in the Canadian iTunes Music Store.] [...] ================================= ...from: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2007/04/03/tech- iphonejune-20070403.html Apple confirms U.S. iPhone launch set for June Last Updated: Tuesday, April 3, 2007 | 3:45 PM ET CBC News Apple Inc. has confirmed reports that its iPhone cellphone will be released in the United States in June. [...] "We haven't announced whether we will carry the iPhone," Odette Coleman, manager of corporate communications for Rogers Wireless, said in an e-mail to CBC News Online. "Everything in the media has been speculations to this point. The only fact is that we are the only GSM carrier in Canada. That's the only fact." (Editor's note: the "only fact" quoted is not quite true. www.icewireless.ca shows the ICE Wireless GSM system available in Yellowknife and Inuvik.... Well, OK. The "only fact" is that Rogers Wireless is the only GSM carrier in most of Canada within 100 miles or so of the US border - except for Alberta (where most of the province is covered - thank-you Teles) and North-Western Ontario where you won't have any coverage at all between Kenora and Sault Ste. Marie except for around Thunder Bay. ::-) ***** ***** ***** ***** [Editor's note: from an email received January 16, 2007 from Rogers Customer Service: > Dear Wayne Billing, > Thank you for taking the time to write to us, we appreciate your > use of > online customer service. > > In your recent email, you have informed us that you have concerns > about > the availability of the iPhone on Rogers. > > We would also like to assure you that we take your concerns very > seriously and we appreciate any feedback that you can provide us. We > appreciate your feedback because this is information that we can > use to > address any similar problems that may arise in the future. On the > whole > it makes us better able to address our customers concerns. > > On Tuesday, January 9, 2007, Apple announced the unveiling of their > new > iPhone, a combination mobile phone/digital music player/camera > > Availability > " The iPhone will first be introduced in North America > " Cingular is the only wireless carrier to launch the iPhone in the > United States > " Rogers is actively working with Apple to launch the iPhone in Canada > as soon as possible and will be the exclusive provider of the > iPhone in > Canada > " Apple is planning to introduce the iPhone in Europe (Q4 2007) and > Asia > (2008) > " Please be advised that Rogers will be offering the iPhone > exclusively > in Canada. Unfortunately, the launch date and pricing for Canada > are not > yet available > " Other Canadian wireless carriers will not launch the iPhone, Rogers > will be the only Canadian wireless carrier to offer the iPhone ================================= ...from: http://www.apple.com/macpro/ http://www.apple.com/macpro/specs.html Apple has announced the new MacPro line which can have two Quad Core Xeon or two Dual Core Xeon processors, 16 GB of RAM, well..... OK.... it's Big and Fast with lots of room for Expansion. ::-) Apple sees is aiming this at film/video, 3D animation, 3D modeling, 3D rendering, Scientific computing, in addition to high end graphic desing, music/audio, and photography users. ==================================== OS X 10.5 delayed ...from: http://www.apple.com/hotnews/ Apple Statement iPhone has already passed several of its required certification tests and is on schedule to ship in late June as planned. We can’t wait until customers get their hands (and fingers) on it and experience what a revolutionary and magical product it is. However, iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price — we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned. While Leopard's features will be complete by then, we cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us. We now plan to show our developers a near final version of Leopard at the conference, give them a beta copy to take home so they can do their final testing, and ship Leopard in October. We think it will be well worth the wait. Life often presents tradeoffs, and in this case we're sure we've made the right ones. [Apr 12, 2007]

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INTEREST: Microsoft starts testing Office 2008 for Mac
by billing 02 Apr '07

02 Apr '07

Microsoft starts testing Office 2008 for Mac By Ina Fried, CNET News.com Published on ZDNet News: March 30, 2007, 10:53 AM PT ZDNet Tags: Microsoft Office, Software engineering/development, XML, Microsoft Microsoft has started private testing of the next version of Office for the Macintosh, which is due out in the second half of the year. Office 2008 for Mac, as the product is known, helps bring the desktop suite back into compatibility with two key technologies. First, the product is the first version of Office that runs natively on both Intel- and Power PC-based Macs. The new software also adds support for the XML file formats that Microsoft added to the Windows version of Office--Office 2007, which hit store shelves in January. Microsoft did not say how many people are taking part in the private beta or whether it will have a public test version, but a representative said Friday that the company is still on track to have the final product out sometime in the second half of the year. While the biggest changes in Office 2008 are the compatibility moves, Microsoft has detailed several new features. One is a program called My Day, which gives users quick access to calendar information without requiring them to first go into the Entourage e-mail program. Also on tap are improved page layout controls in Word and new Excel templates, called ledger sheets, which allow users to handle tasks like producing invoices without having to create or understand the underlying formulas.

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FYI: EMI, Apple partner on DRM-free premium music
by billing 02 Apr '07

02 Apr '07

...from: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/04/02itunes.html Apple Unveils Higher Quality DRM-Free Music on the iTunes Store DRM-Free Songs from EMI Available on iTunes for $1.29 in May CUPERTINO, California—April 2, 2007—Apple® today announced that EMI Music’s entire digital catalog of music will be available for purchase DRM-free (without digital rights management) from the iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com) worldwide in May. DRM-free tracks from EMI will be offered at higher quality 256 kbps AAC encoding, resulting in audio quality indistinguishable from the original recording, for just $1.29 per song. In addition, iTunes customers will be able to easily upgrade their entire library of all previously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free versions for just 30 cents a song. iTunes will continue to offer its entire catalog, currently over five million songs, in the same versions as today—128 kbps AAC encoding with DRM—at the same price of 99 cents per song, alongside DRM-free higher quality versions when available. “We are going to give iTunes customers a choice—the current versions of our songs for the same 99 cent price, or new DRM-free versions of the same songs with even higher audio quality and the security of interoperability for just 30 cents more,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think our customers are going to love this, and we expect to offer more than half of the songs on iTunes in DRM-free versions by the end of this year.” “EMI and iTunes are once again teaming up to move the digital music industry forward by giving music fans higher quality audio that is virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings, with no usage restrictions on the music they love from their favorite artists,” said Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group. With DRM-free music from the EMI catalog, iTunes customers will have the ability to download tracks from their favorite EMI artists without any usage restrictions that limit the types of devices or number of computers that purchased songs can be played on. DRM-free songs purchased from the iTunes Store will be encoded in AAC at 256 kbps, twice the current bit rate of 128 kbps, and will play on all iPods, Mac® or Windows computers, Apple TVs and soon iPhones, as well as many other digital music players. iTunes will also offer customers a simple, one-click option to easily upgrade their entire library of all previously purchased EMI content to the higher quality DRM-free format for 30 cents a song. All EMI music videos will also be available in DRM-free format with no change in price. ...webcast of the press conference: http://w3.cantos.com/07/pjxrobbi-703-5zvx0/interviews.php?task=view ...EMI Worldwide web site including groups and songwriters signed with EMI: http://www.emimusicpub.com/worldwide/index.html

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New Version of Boot Camp - 1.2 Beta
by Doug Hamilton 29 Mar '07

29 Mar '07

Hello, Apple has released another beta of Boot Camp, which now sits at version 1.2-beta. Boot Camp 1.2 beta includes: • Support for Windows Vista (32-bit) • Updated drivers, including but not limited to trackpad, AppleTime (synch), audio, graphics, modem, iSight camera • Support the Apple Remote (works with iTunes and Windows Media Player) • A Windows system tray icon for easy access to Boot Camp information and actions • Improved keyboard support for Korean, Chinese, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Russian, and French Canadian • Improved Windows driver installation experience • Updated documentation and Boot Camp on-line help in Windows • Apple Software Update (for Windows XP and Vista) **NOTE: 1.) To install Vista you will need to have the single DVD media and not the multi-disk CD media distribution. 2.) It is highly recommended that you have 2GB of RAM to run Vista. 3.) Under Microsofts current EULA, you must have Vista Business or higher in the product line to be used with a virtual environment (e.g. Parallels Desktop for Mac, VMWare Fusion). However, Boot Camp is NOT a virtual environment. 4.) As a beta there is absolutely no support from Apple Inc. At this time, we have no guidance from Apple if this support situation will change with the final release of Boot Camp. For those who don't already know, Boot Camp is basically an installation assistant and a collection of MS-Windows drivers to enable Windows XP and Vista (32-bit) to boot on Apple computer hardware as the primary operating system without removing the Mac OS X installation. Specifically, MS-Windows has direct access to the hardware in the computer will no emulation or virtualization. It also modifies the boot manager to show MS-Window installations on local hard drives (reboot your Mac and immediately hold down the "Alt / Option" key). For more information see http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/ Regards, Doug ------------- Doug Hamilton, BA, MA, APP Senior Computer Consultant Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba 204-474-6196 (Ph.) 204-474-7556 (Fax) http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/ Begin forwarded message: From: Rob Klassen <rklassen(a)apple.com> Date: March 28, 2007 5:01:34 PM CDT (CA) To: Robert Klassen <rklassen(a)apple.com> Subject: New Version of Boot Camp - 1.2 Beta ****Please do not forward this email, this information is for you only**** Hi Everyone, if he have not seen this, Apple will be released Boot Camp 1.2 beta today with Windows Vista support. This version contains fixes for a variety of issues found in 1.1.2, updated drivers, and support for Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate. **Note that on a Mac Pro, you must have at least 2GB RAM installed if you want to run Vista or Vista will complain about needing additional resources. To get started, you still need a full copy of of XP or Vista (single disc). Vista Starter and Enterprise editions may work, but because they've not been tested, they are not recommended. Similarly, Apple only supports 32-bit versions of XP and Vista. No 64- bit. For 64-bit apps, use Mac OS X ;-) Note added support for the Apple Remote (try it. It's very cool) and made the system tray item in Windows about Boot Camp, not just the keyboard support. Apple Software Update for Windows is also being installed on XP and Vista so we can try updating some things automatically in the future (if necessary). Also they fixed a bug that sometimes caused the mouse cursor to stall, jitter, or shake when using a trackpad. Changes in Boot Camp 1.2 beta • Updated drivers, including but not limited to trackpad, AppleTime (synch), audio, graphics, modem, iSight camera • Fixes for Windows Vista (32-bit only) • Support the Apple Remote (works with iTunes and Windows Media Player) • A Windows system tray icon for easy access to Boot Camp information and actions • Improved keyboard support for Korean, Chinese, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Russian, French Canadian • Fixes for the Boot Camp Assistant • Improved Windows driver installation experience • Updated documentation and Boot Camp on-line help in Windows • Apple Software Update (for Windows XP and Vista) Updating to Boot Camp 1.2 beta If you previously installed Boot Camp beta, you can easily update to Boot Camp 1.2 beta. You don't need to partition your hard drive again (unless you want to change its size) or reinstall your Macintosh and Windows software or documents, but it's very important to update the Boot Camp Assistant software, create a new Mac Drivers CD and install the updated software it contains onto Windows. Complete instructions are provided in the Installation and Setup Guide included with the Boot Camp 1.2 beta software. If you happen to upgrade from XP to Vista on a Boot Camp partition, you'll need to re-run the BC 1.2 Mac Drivers disc to replace the Mac XP drivers with the Vista drivers. Otherwise, your Vista install will act weird running on the Mac. If you have Windows installed on a FAT32 partition, you will need to reformat it to NTFS to install Vista (use the Vista installer) and may need to increase its size as Vista requires more space. Boot Camp Beta Expiration The Boot Camp beta program began April 2006 and will end upon the release of Boot Camp in Mac OS X Leopard (expected Spring 2007) and no later September 30, 2007, whichever occurs first. Upon the termination of the program, customers should cease using and destroy all copies, full or partial, of the the Boot Camp beta software and Windows drivers included with Boot Camp beta. Hard drive partitions created using Boot Camp Assistant, containing Microsoft Windows and Windows software applications are not affected by the expiration of the Boot Camp beta, only the Boot Camp Assistant. Please encourage customers that want to continue using Boot Camp after the expiration of Boot Camp beta to prepare by making arrangements to purchase or upgrade to Mac OS X Leopard.

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INTEREST: Blu-ray vs HD DVD sales
by billing 16 Mar '07

16 Mar '07

...from: http://www.oto-online.com/index.php? option=com_content&task=view&id=284&Itemid=1 Blu-ray and HD DVD - different positions in US and Europe Wednesday, 14 March 2007 Blu-ray Disc movie sales in the US are outpacing those of HD DVD titles by a factor of 2 to 1, according to figures from market researcher Nielsen VideoScan. At the MEDIA-TECH Showcase and Conference in Barcelona last week, Blu-ray Disc Association spokesperson Frank Simonis presented figures from 20th Century Fox predicting that the ratio would rise to 3.5 to 1 by the end of this month. Blu-ray title sales began to accelerate about two weeks after the release of the Blu-ray-equipped Sony PlayStation 3 on November 17 last year. Meanwhile, in Europe, HD DVD has the lion's share of the third- generation equipment market - for the time being at least. Figures from GfK Marketing Services show that, during January, mainly due to Toshiba's entry-level HD-E1 player, HD DVD had an 85% share of the market for blue-laser players, recorders and drives; the remaining 15% was split between Blu-ray equipment from Samsung and Sony. Prior to the launch of the HD-E1, Toshiba had only a 58% share; however, with the PS3 due to launch in Europe at the end of next week, these figures are widely expected to swing back in Blu-ray's favour.

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Daylights Saving Time
by Doug Hamilton 12 Mar '07

12 Mar '07

Here is a good article on making sure your Mac has adjusted to the new start date for Daylights Saving Time ... which started yesterday those of you who hadn't noticed. ;) http://www.macworld.com/2007/03/secrets/dstfix/index.php Regards, Doug

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INTEREST: Mac users, Microsoft's "guinea pigs"; "Double shot" trouble
by billing 10 Mar '07

10 Mar '07

...from: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,129592/article.html Microsoft Considered Dumping Mac Office to Hurt Apple Jonny Evans, Monday, March 05, 2007 07:00 PM PST Documents in the recent Iowa antitrust trial reveal more of Microsoft's business practices. Yet more criticism of Microsoft's business practices has emerged in the wake of the recent Iowa anti-trust trial. Documentary evidence that Microsoft considered abandoning Office for Mac in order to cause "a great deal of harm" to Apple has emerged. An emailed memo from Microsoft-founder Bill Gates to then Mac Business Unit chief Ben Waldman dated June 1997 talks about morale in the Mac Office development camp. At that time Microsoft's senior management were considering dumping Mac support. The email complains at poor sales of Office, which it attributes to a lack of focus on making such sales among reps at that time. It describes dumping development of the product as: "The strongest bargaining point we have, as doing so will do a great deal of harm to Apple immediately." The document also confirms that Microsoft at the time saw Office for the Mac as a chance to test new features in the product before they appeared in Windows, "because it is so much less critical to our business than Windows." ============================= ...from: http://www.designnews.com/blog/380000238.html Friday, March 2, 2007 Apple Wins Patent for Technology in Zune Mar 2 2007 4:37PM The US Patent office yesterday granted Apple Computer a patent for a process called double back injection molding used to make electronic housings. The process allows the distinctive glowing border effect in Microsoft's Zune player [which began shipping November, 2006]. The process allows creation of two different color effects as well as improved structural characteristics of the border wall. it avoids expensive and complicated action in tools. Apple uses double shot injection molding for both iPods and iMac desktop computers, which have a clear shell over a black or white layer. “The two shot injection process allows for a thinner walled enclosure that uses less materials and allows for added structural features that would not be possible using traditional molding techniques,” according to the patent summary [filed on August 16, 2005]. It was not clear, but seemed apparent, that Microsoft may have to pay a licensing fee to continue use of the process. One blogger [http://www.zuney.net/zune- news/736-good-bad-news.html] stated, without documentation, that Apple was stealing Microsoft’s idea. [Patent item at: http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser? Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch- bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=20070048470.PGNR.&OS=DN/ 20070048470RS=DN/20070048470] ================================ Apple on Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, and Microsoft Office: - "Hi. I'm a Mac" Guy: "PC, you are a wizard with numbers and you dress like a gentleman." Microsoft on Apple and Steve Jobs: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/ 16934083/site/newsweek/ - Bill Gates: "...if you're really cool, that means you get to be a lying person whenever you feel like it?" and - Bill Gates: "If you just want to say, "Steve Jobs invented the world, and then the rest of us came along," that's fine. If you’re interested, [Vista development chief] Jim Allchin will be glad to educate you feature by feature what the truth is." Microsoft on Microsoft: http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/01/22/ HNmicrosoftappletie_1.html - Jim Allchin (head of the Microsoft division in charge of Windows and Vista development chief): "I have to tell you my experience with our software and [the Zune] is really terrible," he wrote in e-mail. "I expect you already knew this but I had not personally experienced it. Now I spent last night really playing with it. My goodness it is terrible. What I don't understand is that I was told that the new Creative Labs device would be comparable to Apple. That is so not the case.....I think I should talk with Jobs. Right now, I think I should open up a dialogue for support of the iPod. Unless something changes, the iPod will drive people away from WMP [Windows Media Player]," he said in a Nov. 13, 2003 internal e-mail that was marked 'highly confidential' and carried the subject line "sucking on media players." - also Jim Allchin: http://www.computerworld.com/action/ article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9005873 ""In my view, [Microsoft has] lost our way.I think our teams lost sight of what bug-free means, what resilience means, what full scenarios mean, what security means, what performance means, how important current applications are, and really understanding what the most important problems our customers face are. I see lots of random features and some great vision, but that does not translate into great products." [.............to be fair, it should be noted that Mr. Allchin has since elaborated on these comments by explaining that he was just trying to rally the troops to do a better job and that his comments were not intended to be taken literally. ] ...from: http://www.forbes.com/2006/12/12/apple-microsoft-mac-tech- cz_dl_1212mac.html "On Monday night, after reporters began making inquiries about the e- mail, Allchin published an item on a Microsoft blog in which he claimed the e-mail statement was being taken out of context. He said that he'd made the comment about buying a Mac "for effect," that the e-mail was nearly 3 years old and that he was trying to shake things up at Microsoft." ......from: http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/operating_systems/ allchins_buy_a_mac_email_exposed.html - the entire email message Mr. Allchin , who is co-president of Microsoft's Platforms & Services Division, sent to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer on January 7, 2004: "This is a rant. I'm sorry. "I am not sure how the company lost sight of what matters to our customers (both business and home) the most, but in my view we lost our way. I think our teams lost sight of what bug-free means, what resilience means, what full scenarios mean, what security means, what performance means, how important current applications are, and really understanding what the most important problems are customers face are. I see lots of random features and some great vision, but that doesn't translate into great products. "I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft. If you run the equivalent of VPC [Virtual PC] on a Mac you get access to basically all Windows application software (although not the hardware). Apple did not lose their way. You must watch this new video below. I know this doesn't show anything for businesses, but my point is about the philosophy that Apple uses. They think scenario. They think simple. They think fast. I know there is nothing hugely deep in this. "http: //www.apple.com/ilife/video/ilifeO432C.html [Note: Link is now dead] "I must tell you everything in my soul tells me that we should do what I called plan (b) yesterday. We need a simple fast storage system. LH [Longhorn] is a pig and I don't see any solution to this problem. If we are to rise to the challenge of Linux and Apple, we need to start taking the lessons of 'scenario, simple, fast' to heart. Jim"

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New AirPort Extreme wireless stations let incoming IPv6 sessions straight through
by Noel Friesen 15 Feb '07

15 Feb '07

Apologies if this was already mentioned. There's at least one feature of the new AirPort Extreme base station that's not secure by default: It lets incoming IPv6 sessions straight through. More details here: http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/2/14/7063 Noel

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INTEREST: the state of cellular phones in Canada
by billing 15 Feb '07

15 Feb '07

NOTE: if errors in the following are spotted, please feel invited to correct same. Thanks. Wayne ----------------------------------------- [HeavyTechnologyJargon ON] ...from: http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/generic/ 0,295582,sid40_gci1078079,00.html What is this 3G/4G/etc. thing anyway? -------------------------------------------------------- Let's start with "cellular telephones": First of all, "cellular" generally refers to the wireless telephone family. It is just starting to compete, in terms of data transmission (which is to say, non-voice,) with the wireless Internet family that includes Wi-Fi and the other 802 wireless IEEE standards. But it is a completely distinct set of standards. The only place the two are likely to merge is in devices which incorporate a marriage of both the cellular and Wi-Fi standards [such as Apple's announced iPhone]. [In the following, "G" stands for "Generation" and is not related to "Gigabytes". It should be noted that the as the Generations evolve, higher data transmission speeds are attained .] Briefly: - 0G (the 0th Generation, if you will): Wireless telephone started with what you might call 0G if you can remember back that far. The great ancestor is the mobile telephone service that became available just after World War II. In those pre-cell days, you had a mobile operator to set up the calls and there were only a handful of channels available to the entire population of wireless telephones which is why the operator was needed to "schedule" the call. - 1G (the 1st Generation, although nobody actually called it that): The big boom in mobile phone service really began with the introduction of analog cellular service called AMPS (Analog Mobile Phone Service) starting in 1981. This generation is 1G, the first for using cell technology that let users place their own calls and continue their conversations seamlessly as they moved from cell to cell. AMPS uses what is called FDM or frequency division multiplexing. Each phone call uses separate radio frequencies or channels. - 2G (the 2nd Generation): One 2G standard uses a digital version of AMPS called D-AMPS using TDMA (Time division Multiple Access). A competing system also emerged using CDMA or Code Division Multiple Access. As you might suspect, the two are incompatible but you can have one phone that works with both. Europe embraced yet a third standard called GSM which is based on TDMA. Digital transmissions allow for more phone conversations in the same amount of spectrum compared with analog transmissions. They also lay the groundwork for services beyond simple voice telephone calls. Data services such as Internet access, text messaging, sharing pictures and video easily lend themselves to digital technologies of TDMA and CDMA. (3G) - Now that a cell phone is not merely a cell phone, but also a PDA, a messaging system, a camera, an Internet browser, an email reader and soon to be a television set, true broadband data speeds are needed as is a new generation of cellular phone technology. That new generation of cell phone service has been dubbed 3G for 3rd generation. 3G is a new wireless standard promising increased capacity and high-speed data applications up to two megabits. Third generation wireless employes wideband frequency carriers and a CDMA air interface. Implemented in Europe as UMTS (also marketed under the name 3GSM) and CDMA2000 in North America, its goals are high-quality multimedia and advanced global roaming (in house, cellular, satellite, etc.). You will also encounter the 3G term EVDO (Evolution- Data Optimized ) which is the data transmission standard in the CDMA2000 specification. 4G: The fourth generation being championed in Japan will boost the data rates to 20 Mbps. These speeds enable high quality video transmission and rapid download of large music files. ...from: http://www.nttdocomo.com/pr/2007/001319.html TOKYO, JAPAN, February 9, 2007 --- NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today that it achieved a maximum packet transmission rate of approximately 5Gbps in the downlink using 100MHz frequency bandwidth to a mobile station moving at 10km/h. The field experiment of fourth-generation (4G) radio access took place in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture on December 25, 2006. [HeavyTechnologyJargon OFF] [LightTechnologyJargon ON] Where is Canadian cellular communications? -------------------------------------------------------------------- So, no without some of the jargon, the first generation of today's cellular phones have been around since about 1981. Canada's cellular providers seem to currently be working toward 3G: - Rogers Communications (Fido): On February 2006 at the 3GSM Conference in Barcelona, Rogers announced that testing for their 3G/ 3.5G UMTS/HSDPA network would be complete by March 2006. The network was brought online for select markets on November 2, 2006, with further expansion during 2007. UMTS/HSDPA is officially available in the Golden Horseshoe of Ontario, including Brampton, Burlington, Hamilton, Mississauga, Oshawa, Richmond Hill, Pickering, Newmarket, Markham, Niagara Falls, Oakville, St. Catharines, Toronto, and all points between. So far, users are reporting performance in the 2-3 Mbit/s range on the HSDPA network, and 1 Mbit/s using UMTS. Note, however, that Rogers already offers GSM/EDGE (the predecessor to UMTS) all across Canada. EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) is a digital mobile phone technology built on top of GSM that allows for increased data transmission rate and improved data transmission reliability. GSM/EDGE is generally classified as a 2.75G network technology since it does not include true 3G technology but is merely an enhancement to the 2G standard. EDGE has been introduced into GSM networks around the world since 2003, initially in North America. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Wireless http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Data_Rates_for_GSM_Evolution - Telus: Telus employs the CDMA2000 standard for their cellular network, and its 3G EvDO network has since been deployed and marketed as "broadband on the fly". Telus has also been involved in a controversy similar to that of the American telecom firm Verizon, where it crippled the Bluetooth function of its mobile phones and devices, forcing customers to access its network more often and thus increasing charges and revenue. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TELUS - MTS Wireless: EVDO (which MTS is referring to as "Mobility High Speed") service is available within MTS EVDO coverage areas (currently Winnipeg & Brandon), where technology permits. Data download speeds of 400-700 kbps per second are average technology speeds that users will experience based on manufacturer’s specifications. Data download speeds will vary depending on user’s location and hardware. http://www.mts.ca/portal/site/mts/ menuitem.a275cbc6dbb0d4e50e14081031248a0c/? vgnextoid=56970331b4dca010VgnVCM1000000408120aRCRD&vgnextchannel=0b1ccc8 78fc81010VgnVCM1000000408120aRCRD Interesting side stories: a) Entitled "China skips 3G and goes to 4G cell networks" the January 30, 2007 post describes how 3G cell technology is not available in mainland China but it looks like they'll be going directly to 4G as a successful field trial and launch has been done in Shanghai. http://www.cellphones.ca/tag/4G http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=534007 b) On Monday, February 12, 2007, Microsoft filed an application with the FCC for an enigmatic wireless device that could be used to talk over the Internet. The device is described as being used for “consumer broadband access and networking,” which doesn’t sound like vanilla VoIP. Microsoft goes on to say that the device would use OFDM as its communications protocol, not WiFi or Bluetooth. The standard OFDM (orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing) is a modulation scheme that is used widely in upcoming 4G standards. http://crunchgear.com/2007/02/09/zne-phone-confirmed-launch- scenario-4g-wimax-action-rumors-off-the-wtf-o-meter/ [LightTechnologyJargon OFF] [NoJargon ON] The first generation of today's cellular phones have been around since about 1981. These phones have been dubbed 1G or 1st Generation cellular phone technology. Many of today's cellular subscribers in Canada are using 2G (2nd Generation) phones. Some Canadian cellular/ wireless phone providers are providing true 3G technology but at the moment this is most likely restricted to high-end devices such as BlackBerry units. In addition, other Canadian providers have enhanced their 2G technology (e.g. GSM/EDGE sometimes referred to as 2.75G) and are using this enhancement as a "stop gap" to provide faster data transmission for their cellular technology while they upgrade their networks country-wide to true 3G technology. The switch to 3G (and then 4G) cellular technology is driven by the need for high-bandwidth data transmission cell phones. As this an Apple oriented mailing list - in Canada - let's look briefly at how this affects the upcoming iPhone release: 1) Apple's iPhone will initially support only the GSM/EDGE standard. This seems to have been a strategic move on Apple's part as GSM is huge in Europe and many Asian countries; it is available in Canada; it is the standard used by the Cingular network in the United States. Cingular is the largest cell phone provider in the USA. It is widely speculated that the iPhone will remain GSM/EDGE for the duration of Apple's contract with Cingular (2 years) after which an iPhone supporting other true 3G (possibly 4G?) standards will also be released. [NOTE: Cingular has recently announced that it is changing it's name to ATT.] 2) Rogers Communication/Wireless is the only network which supports GSM/EDGE in Canada. Rogers purchased this network from ATT Wireless (Canada) when it closed down. 3) Rogers has announced that they are in negotiation with Apple attempting to reach an agreement that will allow Rogers to release the iPhone in Canada "sooner rather than later". [NoJargon OFF]

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INTEREST: one journalist's view of Microsoft "spin" (...and the Blogoshpere)
by billing 06 Feb '07

06 Feb '07

...from: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/technology/25pogue-email.html? ex=1185685200&en=5a72e70f46fca51d&ei=5087&mkt=techphoto A Wake-Up Call to Microsoft's PR Team By DAVID POGUE Published: January 25, 2007 From the January 1, 2007, edition of The New York Times: "Several bloggers reported last week that they had received Acer Ferrari laptops, which can sell for more than $2,200, from Microsoft. A spokeswoman for Microsoft confirmed on Friday that the company had sent out about 90 computers to bloggers who write about technology and other subjects" that could be affected by the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft's new operating system. "Being provided an evaluation computer from Acer is not a 'bribe,'" argued blogger Blake Handler, after receiving one of the free laptops. "It simply allows me to accelerate my evaluations, documentation and demonstrations of Windows Vista." OMG! You've got to be kidding me, Blake. I guess just being *lent* a laptop wouldn't have been enough to accelerate your evaluations? I guess only being given a freebie from Microsoft would do the trick. Now, I realize it must be hard to send a shiny new laptop back to the mother ship just because it's the right thing to do. Still, I think very little of the bloggers who are keeping Microsoft's bribe laptops. Clearly, they're exploiting the lawless, Brave New World of the blogsophere, where, since they're Not Quite Journalists, they don't feel constrained by any of those pesky journalistic ethics guidelines. Like the one that says, "You don't keep $2,200 gifts from the subject of your review. You might think you can still write an impartial review, but it's highly unlikely-and either way, nobody will believe it." But Microsoft gets much of the blame, too. It deliberately exploited a weak spot in today's court of public opinion: how bloggers influence consumers, but generally don't have conflict-of-interest policies. Now, I realize that this isn't exactly breaking news; in fact, it's weeks old. I wasn't even going to bring it up, but yesterday I remembered something: this isn't the first time. In fact, Microsoft has tried to buy public opinion in secret over and over again in the last few years. Here are a few examples-mainly, the ones where Microsoft was caught: In 1998, the Los Angeles Times reported that Microsoft, during its antitrust trials, hired PR companies to flood newspapers with fake letters of support, bearing ordinary individuals' names but actually written by Microsoft PR staff. Later, during the antitrust trials, Microsoft attempted to prove the inseparability of Windows and Internet Explorer by playing a video for the judge. But the government's lawyer noticed that as the tape rolled on, the number of icons on the desktop kept changing. Microsoft had spliced together footage from different computers to make its point. Then in 2002, Microsoft's Web site featured a testimonial called "Confessions of a Mac to PC Convert," a first-person account by an attractive brunette "freelance writer" about how she had fallen in love with Windows XP. Unfortunately, a Slashdot member discovered that the identical photo was available for rent from the stock-photo libraries of GettyImages.com. Sure enough: Microsoft had hired a PR firm to write the testimonial. The "switcher" did not actually exist. I am not, and never will be, a knee-jerk Microsoft basher. I'll give its products good reviews whenever they're deserved (as I have with, for example, Media Center, Windows Vista and Office 2007). But for goodness' sake: Why is Microsoft so insecure? Why can't it allow its software to stand on its own? Why does it feel the necessity to spin public opinion using these phony "grass-roots" marketing tactics? Here's a wake-up call to the Machiavellis on Microsoft's PR team: bribing bloggers, fabricating reviews and making up letters to the editor makes the company look worse, not better. If Microsoft really wants to earn high marks from the public, it might want to consider earning them the old-fashioned way: By creating products people love.

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(no subject)
by michael kinnear 23 Jan '07

23 Jan '07

Please leave me off your list until September 2007. Michael Kinnear

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FYI: Apple's 802.11n accounting conundrum
by billing 22 Jan '07

22 Jan '07

<Accounting Guru goggles on> WARNING: accounting contortions ahead ...from: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-6151790.html?tag=nl.e622 By Tom Krazit, CNET News.com Published on ZDNet News: January 19, 2007, 6:56 PM PT Apple's explanation of a planned Wi-Fi upgrade fee has its roots in obscure accounting rules that tell companies how to book sales of future product upgrades. Apple said Thursday that it plans to charge customers $1.99 for a software download that enables the 802.11n Wi-Fi technology currently present in almost all MacBooks and MacBook Pros with Intel's Core 2 Duo processor. The company says accounting rules known as generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) force it to ask for money for the download. "During the past several months Apple has shipped some Macs with the hardware to support 802.11n, but the draft of the 802.11n specification was not complete enough to create the required software," Apple spokeswoman Lynn Fox said in an e-mail to CNET News.com. "Now that the draft specification is complete, we are ready to distribute the software to make the 802.11n hardware in these Macs come to life." But because the company has already recognized all the revenue from the sales of those computers, it has to now charge customers at least a nominal fee in order to establish the value of its software upgrade and satisfy an obscure accounting regulation known as SOP 97-2, said Fox. Apple didn't have to do it this way, say accounting experts. But the company most likely faced difficult choices in relation to the upgrade: It could have held off on shipping the new Macs until the upgrade software was ready. It could have skipped the 802.11n capabilities altogether. Or it could have deferred revenue from the new Macs until the software was ready--all unlikely and unpalatable options. Hence, the $1.99 fee. [...] Apple began selling MacBook Pro notebooks with Intel's Core 2 Duo processor in September, later adding that chip to MacBooks and iMacs. However, the company also included 802.11n chips in almost all of those systems without telling buyers, Apple CEO Steve Jobs revealed at Macworld last week. Here comes the tricky part: under accounting regulations developed over the last several years, when companies sell a product with multiple pieces that are delivered at different times, they must determine the separate value of each piece of that product, accounting experts say. And the company can only record the revenue associated with a specific piece when it is delivered to the customer. This is a very common practice in many industries, said Ryan LaFond, assistant professor for accounting at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Business. For example, magazines receive all the money for a full year's subscription at the time the subscription is purchased, but they only record that as revenue as each issue is delivered, deferring the remaining balance into a liability account called unearned revenue. [...] That means a company in this situation would have to defer all the revenue associated with the product until it can establish the value of the Wi-Fi upgrade, or until it delivers the complete set of software, said Brett Trueman, a professor of accounting with the Anderson Business School at the University of California at Los Angeles. So, Apple would have had to defer all the revenue for Macs sold with the 802.11n chips from September until it delivers the upgrade in February, and that's not a realistic option. So now, Apple has to establish a value for the Wi-Fi upgrade in order to satisfy the requirement to separately account for the different pieces of software. One easy way to do that is to charge people for it. There's absolutely nothing in the GAAP requirements that says Apple must charge its customers for that software upgrade. The only requirement imposed by GAAP is that Apple must account for the separate value of the 802.11n capability, said MIT's LaFond. It can do this by creating a value at the time of purchase or it can wait until it delivers that capability to record all the revenue associated with the product. Another option, if the company had wanted to keep the 802.11n capabilities secret, is to create a "new arrangement" with the customer. Apple sold the customer a notebook in September, and is now selling the customer 802.11n capabilities for that notebook. These are two separate transactions that satisfy the need to account for the undelivered 802.11n capability as well as Apple's desire to book all the revenue for the notebook up front and keep the use of the 802.11n chip a secret. Any of those options would satisfy Apple's need to account for the separate delivery times for the Macs and the 802.11n capabilities, according to several experts interviewed for this article. But simply blaming the fee on GAAP, or on the Sarbanes-Oxley regulations as some rumors have suggested, does not tell the full story. "If I'm a company, and I want to give my customer something, GAAP isn't going to prevent you from doing that," LaFond said. But at a time when Apple's accounting practices are under significant scrutiny from regulators looking into the company's stock-options backdating practices, the company has to be extra careful about following the proper procedures while keeping financial analysts happy with strong earnings reports. <Accounting Guru goggles off>

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