Update on the Last Story

So, that whole thing about iTunes sales "plummeting" according to a Forrester Research report? Well, it turns out Forrester meant nothing of the kind.

You see, it's all the media's fault. (Isn't it always?)

So lets go back and look at the abstract of the original report: After looking at 2,700 US iTunes debit and credit card transactions, Forrester found that 3% of online households had made an iTunes purchase in the past year. It further says that consumers who buy at iTunes spent about $35 over the last year, with half of those transactions amounting to three dollars or less.

Now its important to remember something that consumers usually don't see when they use their credit cards: the vendor pays a fee for the right to accept your credit card. Huge companies like First Data, Alliance Data and smaller companies like iPayment make a lot of money processing credit card payments. First Data, for example, took in about $10 billion last year processing credit card transactions.

Those fees, are something that Forrester is worried about. Remember, there's isn't much to carve out of the revenue of a 99-cent song sale. Most of that 99 cents goes back to the record label, some of which, makes its way back to the artist. Apple has never disclosed the breakdown, but my hunch is that it doesn't keep much. A few cents have to go to Visa or Mastercard, depending on which card is used, a few more go to the companies that run the data networks that hand the transaction itself. A few cents also have to go to the cardholder's bank. If the fees are too high, there's not much left over for Apple, in which case the iTunes store becomes a money-losing operation, at least in theory.

"Our credit card transaction data shows a real drop between the January post-holiday peak and the rest of the year, but with the number of transactions we counted it's simply not possible to draw this conclusion . . . as we pointed out in the report. But that point was just too subtle to get into these articles," Forrester's Josh Bernoff wrote in reaction to the headlines about iTunes sales "plummeting" and "collapsing" and whatever adjective indicative of downward motion that may have been used in headlines hammering the report by irritated Apple fans. More after the jump....

One thing that really did go down was Apple's stock. It shed $2.41 on Dec. 12, but picked it all back up and more today, closing up $2.91.

Bernoff's intended point apparently got lost in all the horn-blowing headlines: iTunes sales appear, based on the available data, to be leveling off. And he's not the first to say so. The Wall Street Journal last week mentioned in a story that Nielsen Soundscan has been seeing the same thing in the music download business for two solid quarters. In fact, they're down slightly, at 137 million tracks in each of the last two quarters, from 144 million tracks in the first quarter of the year.

Finally Bernoff says that Apple is incredibly stingy about the information it releases, and I agree. On one hand, Apple loves nothing more than to brag about how many songs it has sold, how many songs and TV shows are in its library, and so on. But what it won't talk about is how much revenue is derived from iTunes sales.

The reason it doesn't say how much money it makes off iTunes sales, is because it doesn't make much at all. Take a look at this data summary (it's a PDF file) from Apple's most recently quarterly earnings press release.

In its most recent quarter Apple reported $452 million in revenue from what it describes as "Other music related products and services," which in the footnote it defines as iTunes sales, iPod services, and Apple-branded and third-party accessories, like say, the iPod HiFi, and products like it.

Now here's where it gets interesting. That figure is UP 71% from the same period a year ago but slightly DOWN sequentially from the quarter just before it.

This combined figure amounts to 9.3% of sales. What I and Bernoff, and a lot of other people want to know here, is how much of that is actually derived from sales at the iTunes store? Apple won't say, and it won't say because it doesn't have to. And it doesn't have to because the figure is so small.

Let's say for the sake of argument that Apple takes home 5 cents per iTunes song sold. Then lets say that it sells a billion songs in a year -- way ahead of the volume its really doing. That would equate to $50 million a year.

Does that figure seem to low to you? Then let's double the assumption to 10 cents a song for $100 million a year. Still too low? Let's double it again to 20 cents a song, and reach $200 million a year.

For a company that reported $19.3 billion in sales for its last fiscal year, $200 million, which is probably too high a figure for our hypothetical "billion-song year" is just a tad more than 1% of fiscal 2006 sales. A hypothetical $100 million amounts to about one-half of one percent of sales. Any smaller than that and you end up in rounding-error territory, or as the accountants like to say, "not meaningful."

This is the dirty little secret about the iTunes Store: As good as it is, it makes Apple very little money. It is, for all intents and purposes, a marketing tool for the iPod profit machine. In fiscal 2006 Apple moved 39 million iPods for about $7.7 billion in revenue, and in my estimation about $3 billion and change in gross profit.

TV shows and movies may change that, but not until Apple is selling not merely many millions of downloads per year, but many billions of downloads per year.

Let's go back to the midpoint of my hypothetical scenario and assume Apple takes home a dime a download, and then assume Apple were to sell 10 billion songs in a year: That would equate to a cool $1 billion or about 5% of fiscal 2006 sales. But ten billion songs a year is a lot: That's more than 19,000 songs a minute, or 27.4 million songs per day.--buisnessweek.com

Is iTunes Dying?

Forrester Group recently presented the results of a 3 months study about digital music sells on Apple’s iTunes, and the conclusions don’t look that good for the Cupertino-based company.

According to the cited statistics, since January this year the number of iTunes transactions made each month has slumped 58 percent, while the average size per purchase has registered a downfall of 17 percent, leading to a 65-percent overall drop in monthly iTunes revenue, U.S. market research group Forrester said in a survey among North American consumers.

Despite the numbers, “it is too soon to tell if this decline was seasonal or if buyers were reaching their saturation level for digital music,” Forrester said in the report that was published to its clients last week, and made available to Reuters on Wednesday.

Apple’s music download service is now dominating the market, following the massive success of the tiny iPod. Apple declared that over 1.5 billion music tracks and tens of millions of TV shows and movies were sold through iTunes since its launch.

The decline indicated by the Forrester analysis comes after a period of strong growth. The number of monthly iTunes transactions grew sevenfold, from just over two transactions per 1,000 households in April 2004, to nearly 17 during January 2006. Over that period, the average transaction size almost doubled, to $6.69 from $3.55.

Revenues generated by iTunes are dominated by a large number of small transactions, with Apple selling just 20 iTunes tracks for every iPod shipped.

Forrester's recent analysis of more than 2,700 US iTunes debit and credit card transactions reveals that 3% of online households made an iTunes purchase in the past year. Apple's iTunes proves that $0.99 micropayments for digital music can lead to substantial revenue; buyers spent an average of $35 at iTunes over the past year.

With half of all transactions costing $3 or less, though, transaction fees threaten to make iTunes unprofitable. Since the introduction of the iTunes Music Store, Apple has been steadily selling just 20 iTunes tracks for each iPod sold, suggesting that even at $0.99, most consumers still aren't sold on the value of digital music.

"Only Apple knows just how much profit there is at the end of the day on a $1.98 credit card transaction for two songs, but with transaction costs, hosting costs, and the wholesale price of the songs, there's not much margin left," Forrester said.

Of all online homes, only 3 percent buy music at Apple's music store, and of those most continue to buy most of their music on compact discs (CDs).

"Although Apple is the dominant leader in the digital music industry, the entire category of digital music made up just 4 percent of U.S. music sales in 2005," Forrester said.

On the other hand, Apple denies any problems with its service, with spokeswoman Natalie Kerris saying that the figure, from research firm Forrester, “is simply incorrect”; sales are up 75 per cent on 2005 and Apple, with six per cent of the market, is now the country's fourth largest music retailer. However, Apple did not disclose any specific details about how much profit iTunes generates.

Other analysts claim that the numbers delivered by Forrester and the overall conclusion that iTunes is dying are wrong.

A Pacific Crest Securities analyst, Steve Lidberg, says that considering the low impact iTunes has on Apple’s overall revenues, even a drop in sales would be insignificant: “noise regarding [an] iTunes slowdown is misleading.”

Sanford Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi expects the overall music player market to slow to 22% growth in 2008 from 48% in 2006. “Although the iPod’s market share has been resilient so far, history provides several examples of leading products that lost share despite seemingly strong competitive advantages,” he wrote.

“For example, Sony’s Walkman - the iPod of its day - saw its share decline from 100% to 28% in three years as other large electronics makers entered the portable music market. As another example, in the video game console market, Microsoft’s first-generation Xbox took 20% share largely from market share leader Sony’s Playstation.”

iTunes and the iPod are now facing Microsoft’s new rivals, Zune and Zune Marketplace. Zune MP3 player is also touted as the “iPod-killer”, and according to market research it debuted as No. 2 music gadget in November, after the iPod. Microsoft hopes to sell 1 million Zunes by the end of June, 2007.--playfuls.com

New 300 GB Laptop Hard Drive

Fujitsu today announced the MHX2300BT series of mobile hard disk drives featuring impressive storage capacities of 250GB and 300GB, making them the first 2.5" PMR hard disk drives in the industry to attain these high levels of capacity.

PMR, or perpendicular magnetic recording technology, is essential to Fujitsu achieving the increased capacity per platter. PMR technology places the data bits standing on end so that more data can fit onto a disc, allowing for greater storage capacity while reducing corruption factor.

Additional benefits of the Fujitsu second-generation PMR products include best-in-class low power consumption at 1.6W, idle power consumption of 0.5W as well as high shock tolerance and near-silent operation. The 4200 RPM drives have a track to track seek time of 1.5ms.

"Due to our strong focus on innovation, Fujitsu remains at the forefront in promoting advanced technologies such as perpendicular recording and SATA, while at the same time continuing to meet the industry's insatiable demand for high-capacity products," said Joel Hagberg, vice president, marketing and business development, Fujitsu Computer Products of America. "Our commitment to R&D has not only spurred the development of the industry's first 2.5" 300GB capacity perpendicular hard disk drive, but it will allow Fujitsu to continue to achieve these aggressive milestones in advance of the rest of the industry."

Just last March, Fujitsu launched the first 2.5" Serial ATA hard disk drive to feature up to 200GB of storage space. The MHX2300BT series will begin shipping in the first quarter of 2007.--dailytech.com

Apple Possibly Getting into the Games Market

Claims that Apple are looking at the games market are accurate according to Apple Insiders however the problem for Apple is getting access to a processor that can deliver the speed needed for an advanced games console.

12 months ago approched IBM in an attempt to get access to the cell processor now found in the new PS3. This was knocked back because of Sony's investment and part ownership of the processor development program.The Cell processor consists of a general-purpose power PC processor core connected to eight special-purpose DSP cores. These DSP cores, which IBM calls "synergistic processing elements are what make the Cell processor unique. It is this unique capability that Sony is banking on over the next few years to give them a big gaming advantage over the Xbox and the Nintendo Wii.

This week in Sydney the Vice President of Technology for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, Paul Holman and I discussed the possibility of Apple entering the games market. "It is possible and we are aware that they have been looking at several oppertunities" he said. "They would need a very good processor like the cell which right now is delivering a lot of power to the PS 3 which developers have discovered has given them a lot of headroom to further develop new gaming capabilities" he4 addeded.

Another Sony Computer Entertainment executive said"We have known for some time of Apple's interest in the games market however it will be tough for them up against Sony and Microsoft and of late Nintendo.We believe that they will come into the games market late in 2007 but not with a pure gaming console. we are told that they are looking at a pretty powerful media centre with a big gaming capability. This is one of the reasons that we are looking at significant firware upgrades between now and then to deliver a better media centre capability via the PS3".

SHN knows that Apple has also held discussions with Intel about thge possibility of getting access to the Xenon triple-core processor that is found in the XBox 360. The design of this processor shares some DNA with the Playstation 3's Cell processor, so it's not surprising that it also embodies many of the same assumptions about the best way to wring performance out of the sorts of extremely large transistor counts that Moore's Curves have given the latest generation of integrated circuits. Like the Cell processor that now powers the Playstation 3, the Xenon carries on the "RISC"-style tradition of trading programmer/compiler effort for hardware. Software writers who develop for Xenon must take on more of the burden of optimizing their code by making it explicitly parallel, and in return they get more execution hardware to play with.

What I am told is that Apple is working on developing a media centre that will allso allow games to be played from the Apple Media Centre console however the problem for Apple is identifying and getting access to the right processor which allows developers to quickly re code existing programs for the potential new Apple media centre. They are also very reluctant to enter the market with a pure gaming console. What they believe is that by introducing gaming as an extension of a media centre will attract a wider audience than gamers.

Prudential analyst Jesse Tortora believes that there is a possibility that Apple will move into the console hardware market. He believes that Apple could combine technology from its existing products to create a home and portable video game console.

"We think the videogame market represents a distinct possibility for Apple, especially considering that it recently announced the availability of videogames for its iPod through its iTunes store," said Tortora.

"The game console device could be morphed out of some combination of the MacMini and iTV, while the handheld player could be developed as an enhancement for a future version of the widescreen iPod," the analyst explained.

Tortora believes that a reason for Apple to make a move into the video game market would be to protect its position in the home entertainment sector - an area Microsoft is attempting to appeal to with its recent roll out of downloadable movies and TV shows on the Xbox 360. Microsoft themselves have also released a rival to the iPod in the Zune.

"There are no technical limitations to this capability, and Microsoft is already aggressively wooing the movie studios," noted the Prudential analyst. "This could adversely impact Apple's iTunes Movie download business longer-term, along with its iTV and video iPod sales."

Should we hear any more murmurings about Apple entering the video games market with its own system, we'll let you know.--smarthouse.com

Another Case of Tech Lessening Privacy

Sometimes this year, Nike and Apple thought at a partnership, for mutual profitability. THEIR profitability, OUR privacy breach.

The popularity of Apple's iPod Nano couldn't stay without effect in the sports area so Nike decided in May it was time to add some fun to regular jogging shoes. This is how the Nike+iPod Sports Kit was born.

Shortly put, a type of sport shoes that, by using some sensors, can transmit to the iPod through wireless connection information on the type of exercising made, the number of kilometers made, the burnt calories and so on. The information can be saved and seen later, but the interoperability works both ways with the iPod offering an adequate musical background for various physical exercising.

Even the famous music download service iTunes included a special section dedicated to Nike Sport Music.

But it seems that listening to music while running is not that safe. Researchers in computer science and engineering at the University of Washington say there are serious privacy breaches posed by the gadget, which is marketed to runners but may be equally attractive to stalkers and thieves.

"It is easy for someone to use the Nike+iPod as a tracking device," says Scott Saponas, a doctoral student in computer science and lead author of a technical report posted online. "It's an example of how new gadgetry can erode our personal privacy."

"A bad person could use this information to compromise your personal privacy and safety. We describe specific example scenarios, like stalking, in our paper," said a statement from researchers Scott Saponas, Jonathan Lester, Carl Hartung and Tadayoshi Kohno of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington.

The gadget in the runner's shoe contains a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip which sends the data to a receiver connected to the iPod. The information itself is encrypted, but enough information is broadcast to a range of up to 60 feet to pose a security risk.

"When you walk or run the Nike + iPod sensor in your shoe will transmit messages using a wireless radio," said the researchers. "These messages contain a unique identifier that can be detected from 60 feet away. This information is potentially private because it can reveal where you are, even when you'd prefer for a bad person to not know your location."

They found that small computer equipment could be used to read the unique identifier. Some of this was small enough to hide in the user's environment. Placed on that person's front door or in bushes beside the entrance the machine could be used to read and record every time the shoe gadget passed it by.--playfuls.com

Moreover, a computer with wireless Internet access can record multiple users' whereabouts, send the information to a central server and plot people's locations using Google Maps. The computer can then be programmed to communicate with the person doing the tracking, with an e-mail or text message.

Info on the iPhone Patent

WASHINGTON, DC: The world’s largest selling personal entertainment device will soon have a new avatar. Seven thousand five hundred songs on its 80GB hard disk will combine with smart phone technology to create the iPhone, according to the latest buzz on the global geek circuit.

According to US Patent Application No 20060268528 and Serial No 501184 filed by two of Apple’s innovators Stephen Zadesky and Stephen Lynch, the patent is for “a portable computing device capable of wireless communications, comprising: an enclosure that surrounds and protects the internal operational components of the portable gadget, the enclosure including a structural wall formed from a ceramic material that permits wireless communication”.

The patent, filed in August 2006, was made public by the US Patent and Trademark Office on Friday. It describes the device as a media player, a cell phone and a handheld computing device. The inventors claim that the ceramic material is zirconia, normally used to make fake diamonds, but is also used to create electronic gadgets such as cell phones and smart phones to efficiently transmit radio frequency signals and keep the gadget’s casing strong. The description of the device in the patent also talks about a keypad and an antenna.

Everything in the patent points to a smart phone with the features and the look of an iPod. Technology magazine Red Herring reported that Apple has already contracted a Taiwanese firm to build 12 million units of the new gizmo that is as-yet unnamed, but is already nicknamed the iPhone, based on the popular iPod nomenclature.

Apple’s stock price rose to $91.89 on Friday as news of the new product spread, up from its previous close of $91.66. Although this patent application has all the hallmarks of a complete device, this is not the first time that speculation is rife about an iPhone. However, this time around, the patent seems to be for a complete multitasking convergent product, and Apple watchers say that it could be released as early as February 2007.--dnaindia.com

iPod Still Thriving

Apple Computer's iPods are handily fending off competition from other MP3 players, including Microsoft's rival product, Zune. Apple may have plans to take a bite out of the PDA market, and an "iPhone" may very well be on the horizon. Shares of Apple Computer are trading slightly higher following news that the company has filed for a patent that suggests plans for a wireless phone that includes iPod capabilities.

According to the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, the patent describes a "portable computing device capable of wireless communications" and said this most recent application is a continuation of older patent requests for a "media player system."

The patent was filed in August but was not made public until this week.

A device with the potential to be as popular as the iPod could rattle rivals in the market, such as Palm, which sells the Treo smartphone, and Research in Motion, which makes the ubiquitous BlackBerry device.

On a related note, Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak told Forbes.com this week he admires the BlackBerry but has yet to find a PDA that he will use personally.-- Forbes.com

31 Mac OS X Bugs Patched

By Gregg Keizer
InformationWeek

Nov 29, 2006 01:01 PM
Apple Computer on Tuesday updated its Mac OS X operating system to patch 31 vulnerabilities, including a wireless bug that went public Nov. 1 as the first flaw in a month-long disclosure campaign.

The security update, Apple's seventh of the year, fixes flaws in its own operating system code as well as in several third-party applications and components bundled with Mac OS X. Among the former are three bugs in the OS's font rendering system and four in its security framework. Third-party problems range from a bug in the ClamAV antivirus protection included with the server edition of Mac OS X to a flaw in Samba, an open-source file- and print-sharing system of services for Microsoft Windows.

Unlike Microsoft and other vendors, Apple doesn't rank or rate the vulnerabilities it patches. But about two-thirds of the bugs could result in what Apple called "arbitrary code execution," which means an attacker could, with a working exploit, completely compromise and hijack an unpatched Mac.

A fix for the Airport wireless driver in a number of older Mac machines—eMac, iBook, iMac, PowerBook G3, PowerBook G4, and Power Mac G4 systems—was one of the most prominent, as it led off the well-publicized "Month of Kernel Bugs" campaign. In September, Apple patched several other wireless vulnerabilities after an internal audit prompted by news the previous month that researchers had uncovered flaws in the company's wireless software.

Eight other Mac OS X vulnerabilities disclosed by the bug-a-day project weren't patched by the Tuesday update. At least one has been labeled as "highly critical" by Danish vulnerability tracker Secunia.

Security Update 2006-007 is available in versions for Mac OS X clients and servers in separate editions for Intel- and PowerPC-equipped systems. The 11-Mbyte to 46-Mbyte update can be retrieved via Mac OS X's integrated software update feature or downloaded manually from the Apple site.

Mac OS X Holes?

Researchers have published exploit code that targets an unpatched kernel vulnerability in Apple's OS X desktop software. An independent vulnerability analyst working as part of the "Month of Kernel Bugs" campaign released the details necessary to attack the hole in OS X on Nov. 22, revealing the manner in which hackers could target the glitch, which affects the way Apple's software handles disk image files. The researcher, identified only by the screen name "LMH," issued the exploit via a post on the Kernel Fun Web site. "Mac OS X fails to properly handle corrupted image structures, leading to an exploitable denial of service condition," LMH wrote in his latest blog. "Although it hasn't been checked further, memory corruption is present under certain conditions." The researcher said that the demonstration exploit offered on the site would be unlikely to allow arbitrary code execution if applied by attackers, however, the analyst indicated that the flaw could be taken advantage of by malware writers by targeting the manner in which Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple's Safari browser downloads online image files.

Apple representatives didn't immediately return calls seeking comment on the exploit. Security researchers at Secunia rated the exploit as "highly critical," the software company's second most severe threat ranking, and said the attack could be used by local users to gain escalated privileges and utilized by malware writers to compromise a vulnerable system.

The Copenhagen, Denmark-based firm specifically said that the vulnerability is caused due to an error in the OS X AppleDiskImageController when the system is handling corrupted image files and can be exploited to cause a memory corruption. Such an attack could lead to execution of arbitrary code in kernel-mode, Secunia said in a post to its Web site. Starting on Nov. 1, a loosely federated collection of independent security researchers launched the Month of Kernel Bugs project in an effort to bring attention to known vulnerabilities in operating system kernels. The group plans to release one new exploit aimed at an unpatched flaw in an OS kernel for each day during the month.

The first exploits released by the group targeted another Apple flaw existing in the wireless drivers of its PowerBook notebook computers, while other exploits introduced by the group have highlighted issues in Microsoft Windows and Linux-based software. In a report released earlier his month, researchers at antivirus market leader Symantec highlighted the growing number of vulnerabilities being discovered in Apple's software, which has long avoided the same volume of attacks aimed at Microsoft's Windows OS.

Symantec researchers said that vulnerabilities discovered in Apple software typically allow for local privilege escalation, client-side code execution, and remote code execution. While the company said that exploiting the vulnerabilities in OS X is "not notably more or less difficult" than doing so on most other platforms, hackers have yet to target the Apple flaws as aggressively as they have pursued similar issues in Microsoft products.

Is Mobile Video Worth it, I Think So

NIELSEN MEDIA RESEARCH TRIED TO send a chill down the spine of the mobile video industry yesterday by reporting how few of the people who can view video on the go actually do. In its first Anywhere Anytime Media Measurement study of remote media access, Nielsen claimed that less than 1% of content played on iPods is video. Apparently, and in a way that should scare the hell out of wireless carriers, remote media users would rather listen than watch by an enormous margin. Even if you calculate in the obvious, that video files by their nature are fewer but longer media experiences, the video model still fails. The share of time spent with iPod video vs. music and podcasts is only 2.2%. If Nielsen's numbers are remotely correct, then the taste for portable video is as strong now as it was when the Sony Watchman was quickly forgotten in the '80s. In fact, for a real history lesson in the blistering demand for portable video, try the "History of Pocket Television" site. It seems that portable video is a longstanding solution in search of a problem.
While it may be dangerous to read iPod usage as a proxy for future mobile phone usage, that is the way many analysts are spinning this story. I certainly want to hear what Apple has to say before I decide the meaning of these numbers. Nielsen, bless its little extrapolating heart, based its declarations on a 400-person panel. But surely we have in iTunes itself more accurate metrics. Apple declared a while back that at least 45 million videos had been downloaded from iTunes since video was added a year ago. At the same time, one of the earliest and biggest suppliers of full-length films to iTunes, Disney, recently said it had sold half a million movies on the service. Most flicks are $9.99 or higher, so that already adds up to some serious pocket change for Mickey.

And before all those VCs start slitting their wrists (or their assistants' wrists) because they invested wildly in anything that smacks of mobile multimedia, it is important to consider some other numbers in Nielsen's own survey. About a third of iPods are now video-enabled, and among those owners, 11% of media consumption time is spent with video. To a limited degree, usage is following the technology. Now, I am a bit of a skeptic over the real potential of mobile video, and even I find those numbers heartening. If at this early stage of the platform, those who can watch mobile video spend 11% of their iPod time doing so, then I would regard that as a decent hunk of mindshare.

Mobilistas will argue that portable, downloadable video is an entirely different animal from over-air clipcasting and streaming mobile TV, and I would have to agree. As a veteran video iPodder, I am more of a 30-percenter when it comes to video vs. audio use. But downloading individual video shows or subscribing to vodcasts is a small barrier to use that mobile phones will not have. Also, there will be the special allure of live, high-quality streaming TV coming sometime next year as the mobile broadcast networks and handset start lighting up. Mobile video, as opposed to portable iPod video, will benefit from convenience and the familiar TV model of simply turning it on and watching,

Still, Nielsen's startling 1% figure is a reminder of one very high speed bump obstructing mobile video's march to ubiquity. "Opportunity," not availability, nor affordability, nor quality, is the real catch. When exactly do we get to watch our handheld TV? I know, I know. We will watch mobile video while we wait on bank lines and in doctor's offices or commute. This was the same scenario that was going to make mobile gaming such a hit. See much Tetris being played at the bank?

If you watch people with their phones on these lines or on trains, you see them check their voice mail or squeeze in some leftover callbacks. I probably watch as much iPod video as anyone--precisely 40 minutes a day. This is the time I spend on my exercise stepper, when I watch downloaded video and listen to audio podcasts. But surely I can't watch video when I am driving. Like most Americans, I do not use mass transit, so there are few times in my outdoor day when I don't need to pay visual attention to what I am doing. I can listen to podcasts during all of those times, but there is a small window of opportunity for watching something.

Mobile video isn't a solution in search of a problem, because it really doesn't solve any pressing problem I can imagine. It is more of a medium in search of an opportunity.


Contributing writer Steve Smith is a longtime new-media consultant and columnist, and current editor of Wireless Business Forecast for Access Intelligence at TelecomWeb.com. Contact him at popeyesmith@comcast.net.

Apple's Black Friday Sale

Apple Computer is gearing up to launch its annual "Black Friday" sale next week, in which it will offer price cuts on various Mac and iPod products in a 24-hour bid to usher in the holiday shopping season with a bang.

The one day event extends from the company's online store to its national retail chain.

Last year's sale included a $101 savings on iMac G5s and iBook G4s, as well as $30 discounts on JBL On Stage iPod Speakers and $20 savings on JBL Creature II Speakers.

Similarly, Apple offered $100 off select Shure Sound Isolating Earphones, and $30 off its AirPort Express and iSight products. It also offered $5 discounts on select iPod accessories and price cuts on some software titles.

About the same time Apple kicks-off its Black Friday festivities, the company is expected to announce "holiday store hours" at many of its retail locations. Unlike the Black Friday sale, the extended hours of operation will run through the entire holiday shopping season.

The Mac maker will also be sprucing up its retail store window displays and handing out attractive print copies of its "Holiday Gift Guide," showcasing its most popular iPods, Macs and accessories.

On Thursday, the company briefly took its Apple Store offline to make changes to the online version of this years gift guide, displaying it more prominently to web shoppers.

Traditionally, Apple has pre-announced plans for its Black Friday bonanzas but kept specific discounts and sale items a secret until the day of the sale.--appleinsider.com

Apple Shares Hit a New High

Apple share reached a new 52-week high yesterday, boosted by positive iPod sales predictions from Piper Jaffray and continued strong market performance.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster believes Apple could sell up to 15 million iPods in its current Christmas quarter.

“While it is way too early to make a call on December quarter iPod results, we have analysed the first month of NPD data (October) for the quarter and found that it suggests iPod units of 14-15 million,” Munster said in the report.

Red-hot rumours claiming the company is working towards the release of a combined iPod on-cum-mobile phone also boosted investor optimism, driving shares up $1.56 on trading yesterday.

Analysts predict the release of such a device could drop an additional $6 billion into the company's revenues next year.

The rumour took on new life this week, when a local Taiwanese report claimed the company has now ordered 12 million units of the device to be manufactured by Hon Hai's Foxconn subsidiary. Foxconn already manufactures iPods for the company.

Apple shares currently stand at $85.61, inching toward street consensus top value estimates of between $90 and $101 per share. The company now has a market capital of $73.02 billion.--macworld.co.uk

Mac vs Dell

Few things stoke the emotions of computer fans like a good Mac-versus-PC smackdown. So after I penned a comparison of the prices of a Mac Pro and similar Dell PC, I wasn’t surprised when my e-mail inbox and Macworld’s forum thread began filling up. As usual, some of that feedback was friendly, others…well, not so much. On both sides of the equation, there were readers making valid points—as well as people less interested in a dispassionate look at the facts.


In the wake of such criticism, helpful feedback, and valid disagreements, it’s time to follow up my original article with responses to some common questions and comments, as well as to evaluate some new points of comparison between the two systems.

My rationale
Despite what you might read on digg, I’m not an evil, Apple-paid propagandist whose sole purpose in life is to mislead lemming-like Mac users by creating dishonest comparisons designed to fool naive readers into drinking the Kool-Aid. (Trust me, I stood in front of my mirror and checked.) No, I’m someone who’s just trying to get some perspective on the relative prices of Apple’s latest hardware and comparable hardware from a popular PC vendor.

To do so, I had to make some configuration decisions—otherwise I’d have to write about five million different articles, each with different sets of configurations, and I’m afraid my hard drive just isn’t big enough for that. Could I have configured the systems more closely? Sure. But to paraphrase my boss, the point of the article was not to configure one, then the other, then back to the first one, then back to the other, until we’ve got something that’s “comparable.” Rather, it was to take Apple’s “standard configuration” Mac Pro and configure a Dell system to match it as closely as possible. (That still required a few minor tweaks to the Mac Pro—for example, the amount of RAM—to make a fairer comparison, but we left as much alone as we could.) And I was careful to explain the ways in which each system was superior to the other, given my configuration choices.

With that said, let’s run through some of the most common feedback I received, along with my responses. After that, I’ll do a few more Dell/Mac Pro comparisions, including a bit of “upgrade matching.”

Common complaints
The video card you used in the Dell was much better—and much more expensive—than the one in the Mac Pro.

You’re right. Simple as that. The Quadro FX 3450 I stuck in the Dell provides significantly better performance than the GeForce 7300GT found in the stock Mac Pro, and the Quadro’s $525 price increased the Dell’s price unfairly (although not nearly by $1000+, as some claimed).

This was one of those judgment calls: When configuring the machines, I was surprised to find that none of Dell’s less expensive video cards would support both dual- and single-link simultaneously; in other words, they can’t drive a 30-inch display along with a second display at the same time. Knowing a good number of designers—the kind of people likely to buy a Mac Pro—who use such a setup, my reaction was, “But that’s a major feature!” And so I configured the Dell with the least expensive card that could do it. (I wasn’t trying to “cherry-pick” a glitch in Dell’s video-card offerings, I promise. I really thought it was a key feature for pro users.)

Part of the blame here lies with Dell for not providing anything below the Quadro 3450 that provides such a feature; if Dell had offered a less expensive card with this functionality, I would have gladly used it instead. And in the article, I did point out that the Quadro 3450 is a better card than the GeForce 7300 GT. But in retrospect, perhaps a better approach would have been to either upgrade the Mac Pro’s video card to the much better ATI Radeon X1900 XT (a $350 option, bringing the Dell $200 closer to the Mac Pro) or to configure the Dell with a low-end card such as the ATI FireGL V3400 (a $75 option, bringing the Dell $475 closer to the Mac) and then explain in the text that the Dell was equipped with a significantly inferior video system. At least that would have given Dell a price break—without negating the fact that the Mac Pro is still much less expensive.

Some readers instead argued that I should have upgraded both machines to the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500, since it’s the only card available for both machines. Although that’s perhaps a methodologically sound argument, the Quadro FX 4500 is so incredibly expensive—$1450 from Dell, $1650 from Apple—that I didn’t think it would make for realistic configurations. Still, for those of you who are curious, I’ll perform just such a pricing experiment below.

Why did you use a Dell in your comparison when there are so many other Windows-PC vendors out there?

I chose Dell’s workstation for three reasons. The first, and main, reason is that I was “testing” Phil Schiller’s Dell/Mac price comparison, made during the WWDC keynote. The second is that Dell is the number one computer vendor in the U.S. The third is that Macs are most frequently compared to Dells when someone makes the claim that Macs are too expensive.

The Dell includes a display, but the Mac Pro doesn’t. And Adding an Apple Cinema Display ups the Mac Pro’s price by $700.

It’s true, the Dell in my comparison included a 19-inch display—and in the text of the article, I gave the Dell a lot of credit for this fact. (I also pointed out that adding the same display to the Mac Pro would have increased the Mac Pro’s cost by $250.) Why didn’t I add the same display to the Mac Pro? Because the LCD was free as part of a promotion on the day I configured the two systems; it’s quite possible that by the time you read this follow-up, or by next week, it will no longer be free. Then we’d end up with a Mac Pro with a $250 display and a Dell without—and I’d be getting emails criticizing me for not adding a display to the Dell!

As for adding an Apple display to the Mac Pro, Apple doesn’t make a comparable 19-inch display, and Apple’s Cinema Displays are much more expensive (and of higher quality) than those Dell includes for free during promotions; I was trying to compare CPU prices, not the prices on displays or other accessories. But I’ve included a couple display configurations in my follow-up comparisons, below.

You didn’t give the Mac enough credit for [bundled software/security/design/Mac OS X/etc.].

There are many “intangibles” I could have mentioned as advantages for the Mac Pro. But as I mentioned in previous articles, it’s difficult to quantify such advantages in a monetarily meaningful way. I think it’s fair to say—and all but the most die-hard Dell/Windows fans will likely concede this point—that the Mac has clear and significant advantages here. If the price difference between the two systems was small, these advantages might be enough to sway someone towards a Mac. But the nice thing about the Mac Pro, from a Mac fan’s point of view, is that given how much less expensive the Mac Pro is than a comparable Windows PC, you don’t need to haggle over such details.

Dell’s Precision 490 is closer to the Mac Pro than is the Precision 690.

The Precision 690 has features the Mac Pro doesn’t, but the Mac Pro has key features the 490 doesn’t. For example, the 490 doesn’t support dual graphics, a feature that many “pro” users need and one that’s available on both the Mac Pro and 690; and the 490 tops out at 1.5TB of storage, compared to 2TB for the Mac Pro and 690. Overall, the 690 is closer to the Mac Pro than is the 490.

But the Dell can use SAS drives for better drive performance.

True, the 690 does can be configured to use SAS drives instead of SATA; I even pointed this out in the article. However, to do so would push the Dell into a significantly higher tax bracket. For example, to use a 146GB, 10,000rpm SAS drive instead of a 250GB, 7200rpm SATA drive would increase the 690’s price by $260; a 300GB SAS drive would cost you $460! (And the relative cost increases as you add more storage: A 500GB second SATA drive on the Mac Pro will set you back $400; a 300GB second SAS drive for the 690 would cost you another $700.) It’s nice to know that the SAS option is there for the minority of people who will actually use it—and those people should definitely go with the Dell—but SAS capability doesn’t prevent the 690 from being the most comparable Dell tower to a Mac Pro.

But the Dell 690 supports 64GB of RAM.

I hedged a bit on this spec—and noted so in the article’s notes—because the Dell site was so unclear on exactly how you get the 690 to accept 64GB of RAM. It turns out that to support 64GB of RAM, you need to purchase a special 64-bit Windows version of the 690 (which apparently also gets you a special RAM riser). Why wouldn’t you do that? Mainly because it’s only worth doing so if your main apps are 64-bit. Considering that many apps and peripherals won’t even work with 64-bit Windows, this isn’t something the typical user, even the typical pro user, is going to do. (And as a side note, the Mac Pro’s logic board supposedly—unofficially—supports 32GB of RAM right now, and it’s possible the system will support 64GB once Leopard, a 64-bit OS, is released.) In case you’re curious, the cost to equip the 64-bit Dell 690 with 64GB of RAM is a paltry $49,500—just for the RAM.

In other words, if you want to spend a lot more money, you can absolutely do things with the 690, in terms of storage and memory, that you can’t with the Mac Pro; the two aren’t perfectly comparable. However, the 690 is as close as they come in terms of being able to offer nearly all the functionality of the Mac Pro. And, in fact, the Mac Pro/Dell 690 comparison is the best one we’ve been able to do, in terms of truly comparable systems, since Apple switched to Intel processors.

Updating the comparison
With my previous article and the above comments in mind, let’s take another look at the price comparison from last week. Rather than republish the entire table from that article, I’m going to look at the differences that various configuration changes would have made—specifically, video cards and displays, the two biggest points of contention. The “Base price” in the table below refers to the Mac Pro and Dell machines from the previous article, but with stock video cards in both:

I think these variations address most of the modified comparisons readers suggested. After looking at the table, one thing becomes even more clear: The Mac Pro’s price advantage over the Dell is robust—it holds up under many different “comparable” configurations. Granted, it’s smaller in some scenarios, but the Dell never even gets within $500.

Where Dell wins
One thing you may notice, from both the original article and this one, is that although the Mac Pro itself is significantly cheaper than the equivalent Dell, Dell’s upgrades are cheaper. For example, Dell charges $300 less to add the same top-of-the-line video card and a 30-inch display. Seasoned Mac users are likely nodding their heads knowlingly right now, as this has long been the case: Apple has always charged a premium for such options, and especially for RAM, compared to both other PC vendors and third-party resellers. In some instances, such as video cards, Apple may have to pay vendors more for a Mac-compatible version, but that doesn’t make the customer feel any better after spending significantly more for essentially the same technology than their Windows-PC-owning friends.

Changing the debate
Even taking into account the high price of RAM upgrades from Apple (necessary, in this case, to make the Mac Pro “equivalent” to the Dell), the above comparisons show that the standard Mac Pro bests the Dell in price, and does so across various configuration suggestions from both sides of the debate.

Is this a sign of things to come, especially for other Mac models, now that Apple and Windows-PC vendors are using the same hardware? Possibly. But the real significance of the above comparison is that the terms—and the tone—of the Mac/Windows debate have changed in a fundamental way. Over the past decade, the biggest criticism of Macs has been related to price: They’ve been more expensive, sometimes significantly so, than name-brand Windows PCs. That’s clearly no longer the case. Although those who build their own PCs probably won’t be persuaded to buy a Mac, people in the market for a pre-configured computer are discovering that, apart from the feature-lacking low end, where Apple chooses not to play, Macs are increasingly price-competitive.

That’s not to say Macs are always going to be less expensive than a comparable Dell PC. But even when they’re not, the prices are in the ballpark. And sometimes, as with the Mac Pro, Apple's systems will have the price lead on their Dell equivalents. When’s the last time that could be said about a Mac?--macworld.com

iPod Intergration on Planes

CUPERTINO, California—November 14, 2006—Apple® today announced it is teaming up with Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM and United to deliver the first seamless integration between iPod® and in-flight entertainment systems. These six airlines will begin offering their passengers iPod seat connections which power and charge their iPods during flight and allow the video content on their iPods to be viewed on the their seat back displays.

“There is no better traveling companion than an iPod, and now travelers can power their iPods during flight and even watch their iPod movies and TV shows on their seat back displays,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPod Product Marketing. “We’re excited to work with Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM and United to offer iPod users an even better in-flight experience.”

In-flight iPod connectivity will be available to Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM and United passengers beginning in mid 2007. Additionally, Apple is working with Panasonic Avionics Corporation to bring even more leading airlines in-flight iPod connectivity in the future.

The iPod ecosystem continues to flourish with more than 3,000 accessories made specifically for iPod that range from fashionable cases to speaker systems, and more than 70 percent of 2007-model US automobiles currently offer iPod connectivity.

iPod and iTunes® are leading the digital music revolution, providing the best way to listen to music on the go, at home, in the car and now on an airplane. With nearly 70 million iPods sold, the iPod is the world’s most popular digital music and portable video player and the iTunes Store is the number one online music store with over 1.5 billion songs purchased and downloaded worldwide. The iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) features over 3.5 million songs, 65,000 podcasts, 20,000 audiobooks, 5,000 music videos, 250 television shows and over 100 movies from Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning desktop and notebook computers, OS X operating system, and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital music revolution with its iPod portable music players and iTunes online store.--Apple.com

Kings of Chaos

Hey, I recently found this great online game that both mac and PC users can play. It is called Kings of Chaos and if you want to play you better join now for free right now at www.kingcofchaos.com. Why? you may ask, well a new age has just started so all the players are back to scratch. Every once in a while Kings of Chaos starts over when people have gotten so good that no change will happen on the leaderboard.

If you are wondering, this game is a text-based mmorpg which means you control a town which you must defend and upgrade. You get an income that is used for buying weapons for attacking people, training soldiers, and upgrading siege, fortifications, unit productions and covert operations. For every unit you have, you get income from, so the more units you have, then you are stronger, and wealthier which helps you rise in the ranks to the top.

There are four races, each with their advantages. Elves have better covert operations, Orcs are better at attacking, Dwarves are defenders, and Humans gain more income per unit. I would suggest getting a human race due to the fact that you can spread out your gold for attack, defense, and covert operations.

When you start, you will be given 15 trained attackers, 15 trained defenders, and 10 untrained soldiers. I suggest you should first upgrade unit production which will hep for income. Once you have built a good income, upgrade weapons, and when you can sell your weapons for one or two better ones, do it, it is worth it because the strength of them rises exponentially. You should also attack people for their gold, but I suggest attacking people who are worse than you so that you do not lose and waste attack turns.

The best way to gain protection and a lot of units is by joining an alliance. Two alliances work the best, one is called La Cosa Nostra and the other is KoC clicks. La Cosa Nostra can be found at www.lacnfamily.com and I am not sure where KoC Clocks is so I suggest Googling it. To join La Cosa Nostra, you should make me, cvbball12 your commander to start, if you cannot find me go to attacks and search for me at the bottom. Then go to LaCN's website and clock on the join bar which tells you how exactly to join. This alliance will give you units via recruits (clicks on your recruit link at the bottom of your command center page).

Once you have joined I hope you have a wonderful time playing, and good luck, and remember to make cvbball12 your commander!

Possible Defect in 17-inch Apple displays

Apple Computer has settled in a class action lawsuit that claims there is a defect in the company's 17-inch LCD Studio Display. The Allen v Apple Class Action suit claimed that the inverter board in the display was faulty, causing half of the display to dim and the power light to constantly blink.

Members of the suit alleged that a significant number of the displays exhibited the problem, and that Apple failed to acknowledge that there was a design defect.

Under the terms of the settlement, qualifying class action members are entitled to a specific reimbursement for costs incurred to have the display repaired.

Apple first started selling the 17-inch Studio Display in May of 2001, and the problem began appearing within months. A thread on Apple's discussion boards followed the issue, but Apple did not acknowledge that there was a wide-spread problem.

Additional information about the class action lawsuit is available at the Allen v Apple Class Action Settlement Web site, and a detailed account of one owner's experience is available at Michael Wyszomierski's Web site.--macobserver.com

"Actuating Interface" for iPod Phone

Two Apple patent applications published on Thursday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office lend further weight to rumors of a forthcoming Apple mobile phone.

The first, "Actuating user interface for media player," details the technology that will likely replace Apple's iPod scroll-wheel interface. Previous patent filings indicate that Apple has been working on a touch-screen interface that might suit a variety of portable devices.

The images that accompany the filing include a phone as a sample embodiment of the technology. While it's true that patent filings are written to be as broad as possible, the rationale offered in the filing for the use of a touch-screen over a scroll-wheel suggests that Apple's isn't just mentioning phones to cover its bases. Rather, the trend toward the convergence of hand-held devices -- think phone meets iPod -- demands a touch-screen if the device is going to be efficiently designed and usable.

The interface patent application describes the problem quite well. "The display actuator of the present invention is a perfect fit for small form factor devices such as hand held devices, which have limited space available for input interfaces, and which require central placement of input interfaces to permit operation while being carried around," the application states. "This is especially true when you consider that the functionality of hand-held devices have begun to merge into a single hand-held device (e.g., smart phones). At some point, there is not enough real estate on the device for housing all the necessary buttons and switches without decreasing the size of the display or increasing the size of the device, both of which leave a negative impression on the user. In fact, increasing the size of the device may lead to devices, which are no longer considered 'hand-held.'"

In other words, without a touch-screen, hand-helds begin to resemble carry-ons as more and more functions get added.

The second Apple patent filing published today, "Universal docking station for hand-held electronic devices," solves a problem that Apple doesn't really have ... yet.

The filing explicitly mentions phones among the possible hand-held devices that might fit in the universal dock. Again, Apple may just be keeping its options open. But without a phone as part of its future product lineup, why bother inventing a universal docking station when the current iPod dock handles iPods quite well?

It's also worth noting that the proposed universal docking station includes speakers, which would benefit either an iPod or a phone (and would probably annoy current makers of iPod speaker peripherals).--informationweek.com

Apple Possibly Bringing In Fox Movies

News Corp is in talks with Apple to bring films from its Fox Studios to iTunes, according to News Corp’s president and chief operating officer.

Peter Chernin revealed that the two companies were trying to come to an agreement during a conference call discussing News Corp’s first-quarter results. He didn’t say that they were close to a deal yet, but rather emphasised that a few details still needed working out.

Although shows from Fox TV are already available on iTunes, the only movie studio to reach a deal with Apple to sell movies is Disney. If the Fox Studio and iTunes agreement does pan out, it could mean that films like Star Wars, X-Men, and Ice Age will be made available.

Many film studios, include Fox, have already allowed their movies to be available through online download sites like Amazon.com’s Unbox and Guba.com. Although it’s taken a while for Apple to make movies available on iTunes, analysts still believe it could end up being the leader in movie downloads.--pocketlint.co.uk

Mac Laptop Line Gets an Upgrade

Remember the idea of widening the performance gap between the MacBook Pro and the MacBook laptops to distinguish them from one another? Well, that idea just got thrown out the window. Barely a week after the Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo announcement, Apple is releasing the Core 2 Duo updates to the Macbook 13-inch. The good news for Apple is that it still made it in time for the holidays, and now that the entire laptop line is updated, Apple is poised to have a great fourth quarter. Many of us, including myself, anticipated a new revision in 2007, but Jobs and Co. managed to beat that forecast.


As with the previous models, the MacBook 13-inch White will have two processor flavors: The 1.83GHz T5600 and the 2GHz T5600 Core 2 Duos. The high-end black edition will get the Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 as well. The memory configuration remains roughly the same as before, and standard hard drive configurations will start at 120GB for the black MacBook 13-inch. Hard drive options go up to 200GB for those who need even more storage. Apple's Superdrive in the MacBook gets dual-layer support just like in the MacBook Pro. The rest of the features remain intact.


The MackBook 13-inch White 1.83GHz T5600 and 2GHz T5600 CPU configurations will start at $1,099 and $1,299, respectively. The MacBook 13-inch Black will start at $1,499.--abc.com

Microsoft Beats Apple to the TV

It has been some time in the making, but Microsoft has finally announced their online video entertainment strategy for the Xbox 360.

Beginning on November 22, Xbox 360 owners will be able to buy and rent over 1,000 hours of programming using the new Xbox Live Video Marketplace. The Marketplace will see Microsoft selling programming from CBS, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, Turner Broadcasting, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. "CSI," "South Park," "Batman Forever," and "Nacho Libre" are a few of the titles that will be offered by year's end. At launch, TV shows will be offered as download-to-own, while movies will only be available as 24-hour rentals.

"This groundbreaking announcement is a win for everyone," said Peter Moore, corporate VP of the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. "It connects our partners with one of the most coveted audiences in entertainment today, and provides even greater value to our Xbox Live community, allowing them to enjoy the games and entertainment they want, when they want it."

A hot market taking shape
Microsoft's arrival in this emerging market brings with it some impressive firsts. The company has narrowly beaten Apple in the race to find a practical set top box-like solution to get commercial video downloads to the family room TV without having to move hardware around. Apple is expected to launch its own wireless set top box solution, dubbed iTV, some time in the first quarter of 2007. Apple has already announced a retail price of $299.

Microsoft's plan to combat Apple's offering rests in the added value of the complete Xbox 360 package. iTV's features are not yet known, but a premium Xbox 360 with an additional wireless network adapter is $480, $180 more than iTV, but considerably more capable. Recall that Apple is likely selling iTV with a considerably cushy margin, while Microsoft is losing money on every Xbox sold. The Redmond giant is hoping that many consumers will opt for the game-playing, HD DVD add-on sportin', 1080p playin' Xbox 360. While Microsoft isn't likely to publicly bill the Xbox Live Video Marketplace as a console sales generator, the fact remains that Microsoft's chief console competition is all about being a Jack of all trades (Blu-ray, downloads, etc.). And Apple is busy making the online movie and music business look simple. Microsoft needed to make a strong move here, and they have. Yet, even if they have beaten Apple to the punch, Microsoft's biggest concern will be deflating Sony's offering which will likely debut next year.

There's another trick up Microsoft's sleeve, as well. The company says that much of the content will eventually be available in High Definition—a welcome development for those of us who don't like paying full price for low resolution video. No other commercial service currently sells HD video, although sources have told us that Sony is planning to launch with HD. Microsoft says that 20 percent of the offerings will be in HD at launch, with more to follow.

Microsoft did not announce pricing, but the company did say it would be competitive. This suggests TV downloads in the range of $2 and rentals for anywhere between $3 and $7, based on offerings out there now.

The coming accessory boom
Microsoft has been telling the press that it has no plans to sell a larger Xbox 360 hard drive, despite a mock-up suggesting otherwise. With the launch of Xbox Live Video, you can bet that the 20GB drive that's currently offered is about to get a big upgrade. Why? 20GB is simply too small. If used for nothing else but video, the 20GB hard drive can only store approximately 24 forty-minute standard definition TV shows, or 4 hours of HD video. We expect a 60GB or 100GB add-on in the not-so-distant future.

Microsoft has also said that users will be able to re-download content for free, in the event that users delete content to make space for new purchases, or even if users want to sign in to Xbox Live and download the show on another console. Shows will be attached to a user's Xbox Live gamertag.

For now, the service will launch in the United States, but Microsoft plans to expand it to other territories over the coming year.--arstechnica.com

Apple's iTV - it's not only about TV

This digg gives great info on what seems to be the patent for the iTV. Steve Jobs touting iTV's TV features tried to deliberately downplay what it's all about. It looks like iTV will be the ultimate home media convergence play - it's a wireless router, network bridge, media hub and peripheral device in one box. Finally you may be able to get rid of that Slingbox and get an Apple approved and ready product.

read more | digg story

Anti and Pro Mac Videos

Now you decide which one is right

Customizing your Mac OS X experience

Comprehensive write-up on how to customize your Mac OS X experience. Themes, apps, menubar apps you may never heard of. If you have ever wanted to change the theme of your OS than check this Digg out, it is great.

read more | digg story

Another Case of the Strength of Mac OS

A proof of concept Mac OS X virus, which was discovered late last week and dubbed Macarena, includes comments in the code that indicate the author had a difficult time creating the malware.

According to antivirus company Symantec, Macarena - which has infected less than 50 machines - has a very poor replication mechanism and is unlikely to cause problems for the majority of Mac users.

Peter Ferrie, senior security response engineer at Symantec, explained in his blog the virus does not cause any serious problems and is unlikely to spread very far.

He said: "There is no payload in this virus - it simply replicates. However, it won't replicate very well, because it is restricted to the current directory."

Paul Ducklin, head of technology for Sophos Asia Pacific, said the virus was "not important or significant" but he was concerned the author had distributed the source code, which could "not only explain how you might write a virus but give someone direct tools to create one even if they have no skills of their own".

However, in the source code, Ducklin said the author had expressed what appears to be frustration at trying to make the virus effective on Apple's platform.

Ducklin said: "In the source code, which is a mishmash of stuff, there is a comment where the author says 'so many problems for so little code'. So it does look as though virus writers, fortunately, still have a way to go before they are able to write Mac viruses with the proficiency and fluidity that they can for Windows.

"It doesn't have any of the characteristics of a modern effective or dangerous Windows worm or Trojan, it is a simple appending parasitic infector."

He also revealed Macarena will only affect Intel-based Macs: "This is an Intel specific thing - not Power PC."
However, Ducklin warned the Apple community not to be complacent because although writing malware for the Mac is more difficult than it is for Windows, the users' common sense can be a weak point.

He said: "There are things that are done in OS X that make it less likely you will get a virus but very little can head off a determined and ill-informed user. If you are determined to run a program against common sense then you can get yourself into trouble and that may cause trouble for the next guy."--silicon.com

NVidia Becoming a Part of the iPod Family

PortalPlayer has announced that NVidia has signed a definitive agreement to buy the company for approximately $357 million ($13.50 per each outstanding share of PortalPlayer common stock). PortalPlayer's media chips have historically been used in Apple's iPods, however the company has seen setbacks in recent quarters with rumored losses to Samsung (iPod Nano).

For its part, NVidia has been rumored to have secured the so-called "true" video iPod's 3D chip, and the acquisition of PortalPlayer may aid the company as it expands its embedded business.This also brings hopes of better graphics in the future for the iPod. Hey, in the future the graphics may be up to high definition, but for now, we can only dream.

iPod Owners Swiching to Zune?

More than half of iPod owners are 'likely' to replace their Apple player with Microsoft's Zune, according to a survey by ABI Research.

The firm asked 1,725 teenage and adult US residents whether they planned to buy an MP3 player in the next 12 months and how likely they would be to choose Zune over a competitor.

Of those who said they did plan to buy a player, 58 per cent of existing iPod owners and 59 per cent of those who own other brands said they would be 'somewhat likely' or 'extremely likely' to choose a Zune.

'Our conclusion is that iPod users don't display the same passionate loyalty to iPods that Macintosh users have historically shown for their Apple products,' said ABI principal analyst Steve Wilson, adding that Apple will need to make some big announcements in 2007 if it is to maintain its edge in the industry.

'Apple needs a new high-end device that works really well and looks really cool, because other brands are catching up,' Wilson said.

But ABI does not explain why Microsoft's unproven device proved so attractive. Instead Wilson said that it's one differentiating feature - wireless music sharing - 'isn't all that compelling'. Nor have consumers seen and used the player; the researchers simply showed them a picture.

Most consumers, however, will not have a choice as Microsoft confirmed this week that it will only launch Zune in the US and has no current plans to export it.--bink.nu

Mac OS X Leopard vs Windows Vista

On Nov. 30, we'll get out first non-beta look at Windows Vista, when Microsoft holds its New Day for Business event in New York City. Of course, non-business owners won't actually be able to purchase the much-anticipated operating system, but after more than five years, a partial launch is certainly good news for Windows users.


Meanwhile, the general release of Vista is on target for the end of January, and Apple is busy fine-tuning Leopard — the fifth version of OS X and the fourth since Windows XP debuted — for release in the first half of 2007. For the first time in more than a decade, Apple is in a position to steal some of Microsoft's thunder, and with Time Machine, Spaces and a few as-yet-unnamed "top secret" features, it looks like Leopard will certainly draw a few more looks than Tiger (which is already the most successful OS is in Apple's history, according to Steve Jobs).

But aside from the superficial differences between the two OSes, there's another element that may sway some potential buyers to Apple's camp, one that won't be highlighted on the box and doesn't require a hardware upgrade; something that Mac users have grown to expect and PC users have learned to accept.

For as long as Apple's been making an operating system, they've trusted their users to upgrade on their own terms. Every year or so, Apple has introduced a new operating system by following a simple formula: present a worthy product for its clients, and they'll spend $129 on an upgrade.

With virtually no strings attached, Puma was succeeded by Jaguar, Panther and Tiger, and each brought something new and exciting to the table — iChat, Dashboard, Expose, Spotlight, — but never applied any kind of a licensing or transfer shackles. With Apple, the honor system has always been in place; that being said, an OS X Family Pack offers guilt-free installation of the latest OS for you and four of your friends.*

But even at $129, a Tiger license still costs far less than Windows Vista's, which offers just one transfer after the fist installation:

The first user of the software may reassign the license to another device one time. If you reassign the license, that other device becomes the "licensed device."

A subsequent clarification by Microsoft explains that system upgrades (new processors, hard drives, etc.) may not actually require one of the two precious licenses:

When hardware components are changed, Microsoft's product activation process compares information derived from the initial validation, which includes the hardware configuration of the device, against the changes that have been made. This process uses an algorithm to help assess whether the software is installed on the same device. Validation will fail if the software detects a substantially different hardware configuration. … If, after using its one reassignment right, a customer again exceeds the tolerance for updated components, the customer can purchase an additional license or seek remediation through Microsoft's support services.

So, not only do you get an inferior operating system, you need to rely on an series of behind-the-scenes calculations to determine whether your new quad-core Kentsfield processor is a satisfactory hardware configuration for your machine.

With Leopard, however, you need not worry. One copy will serve all of your Mac Pro, MacBook or PowerBook needs, and Apple won't ask for a single penny over the initial purchase price.

And if you really need to install Vista, you can do that, too. Just don't blame Apple when the bill comes.

* Apple specifies in its terms and conditions that Family Pack licenses apply to computers "located in the same household and used by persons who occupy that same household."-- Spymac.com

Zune vs iPod

It’s getting boring by now. Hardly a month goes by without some gadget coming out, ready to hammer iPod. Whether it’s produced by Sony, or Samsung, or any other producer for that matter, the target is clear: iPod.
Of all the competitors this year and from years past, the most significant is Zune. Why is that? First of all because it’s made by Microsoft and when it comes to the Redmond company, ambitions are never low.

What is Zune? It’s a decent MP3 player with a 3 inch display screen, a 30 GB hard disk, an FM tuner, available in three colors. So far, the only notable thing is the 3 inch display screen which is indeed more than the market offers at the moment. Let’s move on because the rest of its features are rather ordinary.

Zune also promises wireless connection, meaning that two people, who possess those kinds of players, will be able to exchange among themselves images, music or play lists without having to use any other equipment. But there’s of course a limitation, the transferred songs from your classmate, your friend or the stranger you met at the subway, will only be able to be played for three times during the next three days. Alright, it’s an interesting facility in a world where social networking plays a very important part. Let’s keep in mind the wireless connection and move on.

But move on where? Yeah, there are also several accessories worth mentioning, which allow Zune to be connected to a TV, be used as an MP3 player for automobiles, a wireless remote control and an AC adapter. That’s all! Wait, there’s a just a little something else, called Zune Marketplace, from where one can buy pretty much any song he or she can imagine (that’s what the marketing team behind Zune promises).

I think I have already said everything there is to know about Zune. Once again, let’s forget Zune is signed by Microsoft and Toshiba (the Japanese company will manufacture the first model of the series and after that, it seems like Microsoft will assume the product entirely). And now let’s talk honestly: is there any facility that would determine you to run down to the first store and buy a Zune player? Or open a new browser window and order it from your favorite online store? Personally, I don’t think so.

A single search on websites such as PriceGrabber.com or Bizrate.com will convince you that there are dozens of models which have a better hard drive capacity, 2.2 inch display screens, a large scale of accessories and many other facilities.

Long story short, Zune is an interesting MP3 player, which brings something new and could probably become an interesting choice from a list consisting of models belonging to Philips, Creative, Samsung, Toshiba or iRiver. But Zune is produced by Microsoft, and its ambitions are not reduced to being part of the “Other MP3 Players” list. Microsoft aims for a brighter future for Zune, and sees this player as The Only One, a direct competitor for the almighty iPod, the nightmare of all MP3 players producers.

Nevertheless, Microsoft’s entrance on the market has been important enough to attract some comments from Steve Jobs, which is unprecedented. Until now. Do you remember Jobs ever discussing another MP3 player in any of his interviews?

In an interview with Newsweek which could very well make the magazine famous, Apple's CEO Steve Jobs said he is unconcerned that iPod might lose its cache because it’s too popular. "That's like saying you don't want to kiss your lover's lips because everyone has lips. It doesn't make any sense," he told senior editor Steven Levy. "We don't strive to appear cool. We just try to make the best products we can. And if they are cool, well, that's great." Jobs talked to Levy on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of Apple's iPod, and cooperated with Levy's upcoming book about the iPod, "The Perfect Thing,"

Jobs also said he is unimpressed with Zune, Microsoft's answer to the iPod, which allows users to exchange songs. "It takes forever," says Jobs. "By the time you've gone through all that, the girl's got up and left!" Jobs added that while iPod and iTunes will evolve, music will always be the core. "It's hard to imagine that music is not the epicenter of the iPod, for a long, long, long, long, long time ... Music is so deep within all of us, but it's easy to go for a day or a week or a month or a year without really listening to music. And the iPod has changed that for tens of millions of people, and that makes me really happy, because I think music is good for the soul."

In the end, why does Microsoft need Zune? Is Zune the result of Microsoft’s need to assert itself in yet another segment of the entertainment market, which already the company is covering pretty well with Xbox and Xbox 360? Or is simply that Microsoft couldn’t stand the thought of iPod, a product of its longtime rival Apple?

Microsoft has indeed reason to be upset, especially since a large portion of Apple’s player succes is based on Windows. Those who can still remember the first versions of iPod have probably not forgotten that they were compatible only with Macs. Maybe a Microsoft MP3 player would have stood a chance back then.

But now, nearly five years later, Zune is rather a project based on ambition, quite hopeless, another product to fill the list of iPod wannabees.Microsoft has blown the chance of turning 2006 into Windows Vista Year and it will certainly not make it Zune Year. --playfuls.com

Macs Come to the Masai Tribe

The new school in the Masai village of Oloolaimutia in East Africa runs day and night now, even though the majestic tribe lives without electricity or running water in its nearby compound of mud houses.

More than 400 children attend the new school—those who tend cattle during the day go at night—thanks to new classrooms and solar panels that provide light and deliver power to three new laptop computers.

“Come Walk With Me”
Retired tech executive Patrick O’Sullivan, who launched the effort to improve the school after visiting the village in 2004, returned this year with a team of former Apple employees and 14-year-old Sean Riordan, son of one of O’Sullivan’s friends. Carrying PowerBooks and high-definition digital cameras, the volunteers shot 16 hours of digital video in the village and region for a documentary designed to raise awareness and funds for education in Africa.

“Come Walk With Me” premiered in July 2006 and will be shown in universities and foundations that specialize in Africa. Riordan, who helped train village teachers to use the laptops, also made a documentary—“The Making of ‘Come Walk With Me’”—that captures the laughter and fun of working with the Masai people.


Masai tribe members pose with the “Come Walk With Me” crew.

The Problem of Piecing a School
O’Sullivan hadn’t planned to spearhead the school improvement project when he first visited East Africa. “But,” he says, “I saw these adults tying pieces of trees together, and I asked them what they were doing. They said they didn’t have a classroom, and I said ‘How long will it take?’ And they said ‘Well, about three to four years.’ I said ‘What happens to the children meanwhile?’ And they said ‘Most of them will never go to school.’”

Moved by their plight, O’Sullivan decided to build a school for them—and even supplied three laptop computers. Dickson Mutaiti, O’Sullivan’s driver and tour guide, handled the arrangements and sent contractors with three trucks full of bricks, stones, doors and tin roofing materials to the village. They built the new school in six weeks, and a U.S.-based solar company in Nairobi installed four 120-watt panels on the school’s roof.

Feeding Curiosity
In the new school, students investigate the world maps plastered on the wall, study the science of solar power that provides their light and watch video of an ocean on the laptops. “They’ve never seen the sea,” O’Sullivan points out. “Never mind the fish. Their eyes were bigger than the screen.

“It was amazing to watch the children use the new tools with such ease,” he adds. “They were intuitively touching, feeling, laughing and investigating. It became clear to me that it doesn’t matter whether you’re from the north, south, east or west of anywhere on this earth: people are naturally curious and once they see a tool, they want to see how it works.”

Door to Opportunity
O’Sullivan, an amateur historian who has followed politics in Africa from the time he was a student in Ireland in the 1960s, is sensitive to the Masai people’s need to preserve their culture in the face of a modern world. He sees the role of education and computers as a crucial door to opportunity.

“When you look at the continent of Africa,” he observes, “it’s no coincidence that there’s never been a Steve Jobs or a Bill Gates or a Larry Ellison from Africa. There are millions of them there, but they never got the opportunity to learn. Yet education is the key to choices, to personal freedom. It’s everything.”

Help Build African Schools
The Masai Power and Education Project is dedicated to building schools, installing electric power and providing computers and other educational equipment for children in Africa. For more information, visit www.buildafricanschools.org.

Tech Check
Cameras:
Two Sony HDV Z1 high-definition video cameras
Sony M10 HDV video recorder
Editing System:
Power Mac G5 with 2.5ghz Quad Core Processor, 8GB RAM, 500GB hard drive
Three 15-inch Apple PowerBooks
Software:
Apple Final Cut Pro Studio
Storage:
Two 1000GB LaCie external hard drives
One 500GB LaCie external hard drive
Displays:
Two 23-inch Apple HD Cinema Displays.

“Come Walk With Me” Crew
Jim Twomey: Editor and Director of Photography
John Riordan: Audio and Post Production
Liam Downey: Lighting and Mechanical
Andrew Healy: Sound and Engineering
Drew Healy: Administration and Equipment
Dickson Mutaiti: Cultural Advisor and Translator
Sean Riordan: Supervisor “The Making of” Documentary
Patrick O’Sullivan: Director and Scriptwriter
Cian Riordan: Supervisor of Photography
David Chaid: Supervisor of Lighting and Sound -Apple.com

Introducing iTunes Latino

CUPERTINO, California—November 1, 2006—Apple® today announced the launch of iTunes® Latino, a dedicated area within the US iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) featuring top Latin music, music videos, television shows, audiobooks and podcasts. iTunes Latino offers hundreds of thousands of Latin and international music tracks, including exclusive tracks and albums available only on iTunes.

“We’re thrilled to offer customers their favorite Latin music and video programming with iTunes Latino,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “Latin music has been a huge hit on iTunes and now we’re bringing music fans even more of what they love in a dedicated area on the iTunes Store.”

The unique iTunes Latino area on the iTunes Store is dedicated to Latin and Latin influenced music in many genres including Regional Mexicano, Rock Alternativo, Baladas y Boleros, Pop Latino, Reggaeton and Hip-Hop. iTunes Latino includes exclusives, albums, EP’s and tracks from leading Latino artists such as David Bisbal, Daddy Yankee, Aterciopelados, Marco Antonio Solis, Paulina Rubio, Mana, Cafe Tacuba and Luny Tunes y Tainy, with exclusive music videos from Juanes, Mach & Daddy and Luis Fonsi. In addition, over 50 Latin-focused iTunes Essentials compilations and Celebrity Playlists by artists such as Sergio Mendes, Julieta Venegas and Alejandra Guzman are available for download. Hit TV shows from Telemundo such as “Pasion de Gavilanes” and “‘El Cuerpo del Deseo” are also available beginning today, in addition to a number of Spanish audiobooks and podcasts.

The iTunes Store, the world’s most popular digital music store, currently features over 3.5 million songs, 65,000 podcasts, 20,000 audiobooks, over 5,000 music videos and 250 television shows. With Apple’s legendary ease of use, pioneering features such as integrated podcasting support, iMix playlist sharing and seamless integration with iPod® the iTunes Store is the best way for Mac® and PC users to legally discover, purchase and download music and video online.

Pricing & Availability
iTunes 7 for Mac and Windows includes the iTunes Store and is available as a free download from www.itunes.com. Songs downloaded from iTunes Latino are priced at just $0.99 (US) each and TV shows are priced at $1.99 (US) each. Purchase and download of content from the iTunes Store for Mac or Windows requires a valid credit card with a billing address in the country of purchase. Television shows and feature films are available in the US only, and video availability varies by country. Games are available for download in the 21 countries in which iTunes operates and play on the fifth generation iPod. New release feature films are $14.99 (US) each and other feature-length films are $9.99 (US) each, television shows are $1.99 (US) per episode, music videos and short films are $1.99 (US) each and games are $4.99 (US) each.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning desktop and notebook computers, OS X operating system, and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital music revolution with its iPod portable music players and iTunes online music store.--Apple.com

iPods At Work

When Gaddis Rathel needed to learn Spanish for his job, his boss gave him an unusual tool to help: a black video Apple iPod, preloaded with language lessons.

Last month, Mr. Rathel's employer -- ACG Texas LP, a Plano, Texas, franchisee of the pancake-house chain IHOP Corp. -- started testing Apple Computer Inc.'s digital media player on a few employees to save money on Spanish-language classes. Now, rather than sit in a class on company time or read a textbook, Mr. Rathel uses the iPod for audio training in his spare time. "I've used it in several scenarios around the house and in the car," says Mr. Rathel, 45 years old, who, as a manager of field training, spends a lot of time on the road. He also uses it while waiting to pick up his daughter from soccer practice.


People used to hide their iPods from their bosses, if they used them in the office at all. Now the bosses are passing them out to their employees. Companies from health-care suppliers to fast-food chains are handing out free iPods so that employees can download audio and video files of CEO announcements, training courses and sales seminars.

The trend, which follows the widespread adoption of the BlackBerry, threatens to further blur the increasingly fuzzy line between work and leisure time.

Last summer, National Semiconductor Corp., a chip manufacturer in Santa Clara, Calif., spent $2.5 million on video iPods for its 8,500 employees, including those overseas, for training purposes and company announcements. At Capital One Financial Corp., a financial-services company based in McLean, Va., more than 3,000 employees have received iPods since the company began using them in supplementary training classes.Siemens AG unit Siemens Medical Solutions, a health-care supplier based in Malvern, Pa., purchased about 100 iPods for its molecular-imaging group last year for training and sales support. Other divisions within Siemens are now considering giving iPods to their employees.

The content available for download varies. At Pal's Sudden Service, a restaurant chain based in Kingsport, Tenn., new employees listen to audio files teaching them how to prepare food while they are in the kitchen, enabling them to physically act out the steps. At National Semiconductor, one of the video files available for downloading off the company's intranet Web site features a senior-ranking engineer illustrating the history of the company by dressing up in costumes from different decades, such as hippie clothing from the 1960s.

While buying iPods en masse may seem costly, Apple offers bulk discounts, and employers say the device enables them to cut down on training costs. Siemens says it was able to reduce the number of training sessions it held for its molecular-imaging group to two per year from four. Each training session cost the unit $125,000, which includes the cost of food and lodging. The price of 100 iPods: $30,000.

Getting a free iPod is undoubtedly a perk. But as employers adopt new technologies to boost worker productivity, it is getting harder to separate life and work.

"The boundaries blur quite dramatically," says Paul Sanchez, global director of employee research at Mercer Human Resource Consulting. "That blurring in some instances is welcomed and not noticed by people generally in younger cohorts." But for employees who are 50 or older, the thought of having to use an unfamiliar device can be exasperating, he says.

At Siemens, older employees were skeptical of the iPod at first. "We got a mixed reaction," says Mike Rittman, a product manager for the molecular-imaging group. "We did get a lot who were like, 'What the heck is this?' They had no idea what it was."

For employees of any age, the idea of your boss encouraging you to put on your headphones can be perplexing. "It was weird," says ACG Texas's Mr. Rathel, who was learning Spanish so that he could use it while training new employees. "I didn't carry it around often at first. As I got more used to navigating it, it was easier."

Some employees say they prefer using the iPod to complete work-related tasks on the go, as opposed to spending additional time at their desk. Sue Sonday, 39, a project manager at Capital One, took a company-sponsored leadership and management course and listened to the materials a few times a week while on the elliptical machine at the gym. Instead of tuning in to National Public Radio, her usual fare, she would listen to the materials in the car by connecting the iPod to her car stereo.

Robert Brait, 55, a sales executive in the molecular-imaging group at Siemens, says he uses his iPod to familiarize himself with product information before he meets with customers. "It does give me the opportunity to use it in the evening or in the morning when you normally wouldn't be at work," says Mr. Brait, of North Andover, Mass. He says he sometimes wakes up extra early to put on his headphones to listen to work-related material.

Different employers have different rules governing the use of a company iPod. While many don't mind if you use it to download and listen to music on your own time, they tend to discourage illegal downloads at home, even though there's no way to monitor it. Capital One employees, for example, sign a user agreement stating they will not store or distribute content in a manner that violates copyright laws.

Employees at National Semiconductor learned recently that their iPod wasn't a gift. When the company laid off 35 workers in its Arlington, Texas, plant in June, it asked them to hand in their digital media players at the door.

National Semiconductor, like many other employers, had required the employees to sign a document saying they would give their iPods back if they left, similar to what they are required to do for personal digital assistants and cellphones. Still, the move drew a heated reaction from technology bloggers, many of whom encouraged the laid-off employees to keep the iPods in defiance.

"Some people were disgruntled about it," says David Kirjassoff, the director of National Semiconductor University, the internal training school for employees. "We might have been able to be more clear in our communications."

The company clarified its policy after the ruckus: Employees who leave National Semiconductor can purchase their iPods at a discounted price. --Wall Street Journal

Some Old Keynote Bloopers

See, they don't always get it right.

Steve Jobs Tops ComputerWeekly Greatest IT People

Top 10 Greatest IT People:
1. Steve Jobs: Steve Jobs, the co-founder and chief executive of Apple Computer, topped the Computer Weekly 40th anniversary poll due to the devoted following he has generated through his pioneering work in personal computing and product design.
2. Tim Berners-Lee
3. Bill Gates
4. James Gosling
5. Linus Torvalds
6. Richard Stallman
7. Arthur C Clark
8. Ted Codd
9. Steve Shirley
10. Martha Lane Fox
--MacDailyNews.com