If Microsoft redesigned iPod

It’s so funny, but it seems so real ;-)

Update: Microsoft has confirmed they made the video.

[posted with ecto]

Mac Tablet Rumor pictures

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There are plenty of rumors about what Apple will release in the coming months, including the often-recurring Tablet rumors. A reader emailed me these pictures of what could be an Apple Tablet, or not… All I can say is that they look like they could be the real thing to me. I haven’t gone over them in detail so there are possibly errors that would tell if they are really fake or not. The pen being silver seems odd to me, for example, and that it’s huge, not exactly “tablet form-factor”. And the “Apple Tablet” text looks kind of like it’s written with pen on paper, but that’s the point of a tablet I guess, and I wonder if the light would reflect like that off a tablet screen. Anyway, here’s just another one for the rumor-mill ;-) If they are real though, I want one!

I tried to see if these pictures had been posted anywhere else and I couldn’t find them. I’d be happy to link to another site that had them posted before if someone will send me the link.

Google Dashboard Widgets

Google has released three Dashboard widgets. They’re pretty cool, take a look.

[posted with ecto]

1 billionth song sold on iTunes Music Store

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Apple has in less than three years sold 1 billion songs on the iTunes Music Store. Alex Ostrovsky, the guy who bought the landmark song, which happened the be “Speed of sound” by Coldplay, gets a 20-inch iMac, ten 60Gb iPods, and a $10000 gift card for the iTMS.

So I bet you’re wondering where lucky Alex lives? Perhaps in Dubai? Abu Dhabi maybe? Or Sharjah? Well you would be wrong. Alex lives in the US of course. Not a single one of the 1 billion songs has been legally purchased from the UAE. Or correction, I’ve been told that you can buy through the iTMS if you’re physically in the UAE, but you have to have a credit card from one of the countries that have the iTMS (which defeats much of the functionality, obviously).

This is a serious issue. Perhaps the reason for us not having any iTMS in the Middle East is not due to Apple. It’s more likely those who have the content – the record companies – that set a stop to it. But for us consumers the reason is really irrelevant. A major reason why the iPod is such a success is the iTMS, and in this part of the world that reason is null and void. You cannot argue that someone should buy an iPod in the UAE because they can get access to the iTMS, because they can’t. Sure we can get the podcasts, but most of those we can get anyway.

Could we possibly get a statement from IMC Apple Middle East about what, if anything, is being done about this issue, and if we can hope for iTMS purchases in the UAE in the future?

Update: A reader pointed out to me that strictly speaking, many of the 1 billion songs could have been purchased by people in the UAE, which is true, but as far as I know it would require a credit card from a country where there is an iTMS, and I think it would be illegal. At least the US iTunes Music Store Terms of Service states:

10. Territory. The Service is currently available only in the United States, and is not available in any other location. You agree not to use or attempt to use the Service from outside of the available territory, and that Apple may use technologies to verify your compliance.

I assume the other stores state something similar. I tried to find the legal text for another store but didn’t have any luck. If someone could spread some more light on this, I’d be happy to revise this post. Anyone more familiar with the legal aspects is more than welcome to send an email, or post a comment.

[posted with ecto]

eCompany all but ignores Mac users

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AME Info on February 18:

Etisalat has announced the availability of the latest version of eCompany’s Secure Desktop Services for 2006 which is powered by Symantec for its Al Shamil broadband subscribers free of charge. Al Shamil users can now enjoy new and improved features of the Secure Desktop Service comprising of Norton AntiVirus Online, Norton Personal Firewall Online, and Norton Internet Security Online software.

eCompany announces on their site:

eCompany Secure Desktop Service

Following extensive research into the Internet usage habits of the UAE business market eCompany, Etisalat Internet business unit, today announced a secure desktop service offered to out customers to avoid worms, viruses, Trojans and attackers teaming up with Symantec.

The eCompany Secure Desktop Service provides you with the best of breed security products by offering you the latest Norton Anti Virus and Norton Personal Firewall software with continuous protection updates and latest software upgrades.

I emailed eCompany Customer Support at 5:15am on 19-2-2005:

I saw the announcement about the “Secure Desktop Service” and I was wondering what I would have to do to get that protection for my Mac? I couldn’t find it anywhere on your site.

There was no answer by 24-2-2006, so I sent them the same message again, this time also filed as a “complaint”.

I visited their FAQ but it doesn’t include any question about Mac.

Since I was impatient, I tried their online chat function and couldn’t get it to work in either Safari or Camino. At first a window popped up saying “Welcome to ecompany contact centre” but nothing else seemed to happen. I tried turning off the popup-blocking feature and that produced one more window, which seems to be the actual chat-client. But I cannot figure out how it works. Perhaps this is not a Mac-specific issue, but I did try with Windows XP and Internet Explorer and it worked fine.

So I chatted with eCompany for a bit, asking about the secure desktop for Mac and the support-chat for Mac. You can read the full transcript here but here are some highlights:

EmiratesMac:[10:54:34 AM]: I was wondering where I can get the Secure Desktop for my Mac?
…
Agent:[10:57:06 AM]: Let me check the s/w details.Could you please wait for a moment
…
Agent:[11:03:02 AM]: Sorry to inform you that these products ,NIS /NPF /NAV doesn’t support MAC O/S

EmiratesMac:[11:03:59 AM]: OK, so what should I do to protect me and my Mac then?

EmiratesMac:[11:04:53 AM]: Is there Mac software you can recommend that will do the same as what you give Windows users?

Agent:[11:06:12 AM]: You may have to use your own firewall or security programs for the timebeing but we are escalating this to our cust supp team to arrange an alternate solution for MAC users
…
Agent:[11:19:00 AM]: It’s better to contact MAC support centre for more updated info on this

So there you have it folks, Etisalat has “escalated” this to “customer support” so hopefully we can see some results… sometime… ;-)

To me it’s pretty simple. They offer quite a bit of software for free for their users but it’s only Windows. Sure there are fewer security concerns on Mac but that’s not a reason not to offer Mac users at least the equivalent features as well. In effect they’re saying to some of their customers “we’ll give you all this for free” but others they’re telling “sorry, you don’t get anything from us”.

And besides that, any ISP should know as much as they could about the security of all customers. To ignore one group of customers, like it seems they’re doing, is bad for business, in my view. It may be that the Mac community in the UAE is growing and with that comes more Mac users connecting to the internet and perhaps eCompany will pay more attention now. We’ll see I guess.

[posted with ecto]

‘Mac’s back…’

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I was quickly glancing over 7Day’s homepage and my eyes got caught on one headline at the bottom of the page: it said “Mac’s back (Big picture)”.

Obviously I anticipated a large, juicy picture of the new iMac or – dear I say it – a MacBook Pro in the UAE. My dissappointment was large when I kept reading… “John McEnroe celebrates…”

Apple Media Event Feb 28

Apparently, Apple has sent out some invitations to a Media Event on February 28, where “fun new products” will be introduced. Come on people, speculate away, what do you think they’ll unveil? Personally, I would vote for a new iPod that does video better and a new Mac mini with Intel chip and possibly also video recording capabilities.

Here’s an idea, why doesn’t IMC Apple Middle East throw a little party, perhaps at a store, and show the event live? They do that to other parts of the world so why not in the UAE? Imagine a big-screen TV broadcasting this live, perhaps outside the store in Ibn Battuta mall, now that would attract a crowd.

Doom 3 kicks butt as Universal Binary

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A Universal Binary version of Doom 3 for Mac has been released and some initial tests show it is really fast.

[posted with ecto]

Buy an iMac = save power?

InfoWorld:

Before I ever tested the Intel-based iMac, I already had the number I needed to be throughly impressed: 120 watts. That’s Apple’s rated maximum power consumption.

I have a duty to report that this figure is inaccurate. Results of the measurements I took on a 20-inch iMac were better than Apple’s specs.

At typical interactive use–both hands in constant motion, flipping among 6 or so open apps–iMac draws 80-85 watts. With both of Core Duo’s cores cranked to 100 percent utilization, I got a steady 95 watts. Lightly or heavily loaded, you can use iMac as a reading light and still save on your electric bill.

Let’s jot 95 watts in the margin. My wife’s standalone 19-inch LCD measures in at 32 watts, including the green power LED. To approximate the power the 20-inch iMac’s would consume if it were a generic headless PC, take iMac’s loaded 95 watt draw and subtract 32 watts for the display. That leaves you with…

…a 63 watt personal computer. That’s with two 2 GHz cores kicking at 100 percent, 802.11g and Bluetooth active, 1 GB of RAM and 128 MB of GDDR3 graphics RAM all churning away.

PC types, here’s a homework assignment for you: Please point me toward a desktop PC, sans monitor, that hits these specs. No embedded, industrial, notebook or homebrew machines. Don’t forget those two cores, now. If it can’t run OS X, I’ll let that slide.

So to save you money, replace each light bulb in your home with an iMac! It may cost you some money short-term but you will make it up on savings on utilities in the long-term ;-)

[posted with ecto]

World’s largest Windows error message

Check it out – it’s a good laugh.

[posted with ecto]