Two Things About the Apple Tax: It Doesn’t Just Apply to Apple, and It Isn’t a Tax

In a move that’s apparently a new tradition, Microsoft is once again helpfully assisting reporters ready themselves for whatever news Apple will reveal this morning by talking up the idea of an “Apple Tax.” The idea is based on the undeniably-true proposition that you can buy Windows PCs with better specs than Macs for a lot less money.

But once again, the e-mail I got from a Microsoft representative takes a heavy-handed approach to making this perfectly valid point. “Apple continues to impose the Apple tax” was the subject line, a notion repeated in a statement within the message so important it’s in boldface: They continue to impose the Apple Tax on consumers even in the midst of a very challenging recession.”
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iTunes Goes DRM-Free, Gets More Expensive…and Gets Cheaper?

It might or might be announced this morning at Macworld Expo, but it seems inevitable: CNET is reporting that Apple has hammered out a deal to sell DRM-free music from Sony BMG, Universal, and Warner, joining EMI’s iTunes Plus DRM-less music in the iTunes Store. The agreement would finally give Apple DRM-free music from all the major labels–something it really needs given that Amazon.com and most other major purveyors of music downloads have lost the copy protection.

Amazon.com also undercuts Apple’s pricing on many tracks; CNET reports that Apple’s deal with the labels will force it to drop its flat 99-cent fee in favor of variable pricing, with hot new stuff sometimes costing more, and back-catalog songs going for 79 cents. Seems like a reasonable concession to me (and complete albums already go for varying prices at the iTunes Store).

I don’t recommend buying DRM-hobbled music, which means that don’t recommend buying the protected songs that still comprise the majority of Apple’s offerings. It’ll feel good if I can stop warning folks about the iTunes Store–and I’ll bet Apple is looking forward to losing the DRM as much as anybody at this point.

Live Coverage of Phil Schiller’s Macworld Expo 2009 Keynote

And we’re live! I’m here liveblogging from San Franciso’s Moscone Center right now, and hope you’ll join me… [UPDATE: It's over, but you can still read the transcription. Thanks to everyone who made this a lot of fun!]

SlingPlayer Mobile: Coming Soon to an iPhone Near You

Sling Media’s Slingbox TV place-shifting box was meant to hook up with the iPhone. (Which is a self-serving thing of me to say–I own a Slingbox and an iPhone, and one of the things I miss about my old AT&T Tilt phone is the ability to watch stuff stored on my TiVo back home on it.) So I’m tickled that Sling is demoing an iPhone edition of its SlingPlayer Mobile software this week at Macworld Expo. It says it’ll finish it up by the end of this quarter. I’m a little worried about just how quickly streaming live TV over the iPhone 3G’s Internet connection will drain my battery down to zero–but I’m still looking forward to getting my hands on it.

Seven Things Windows 7 Needs To Accomplish

With Windows 7 set to make its public debut Wednesday at CES (it already has, if you count the BitTorrent leak), in honor of the seventh major version of Microsoft’s operating system, I’ve come up with seven things I think Windows 7 must do.

Redmond is at a crossroads. Apple is resurgent–the iPod and now the iPhone Effect are driving users away from Windows. Vista isn’t helping much either: the negative feedback loop caused by Microsoft’s bungled launch and marketing is also contributing to the exodus.

Windows 7 could be considered a critical release for Ballmer and Co. Either the new operating system plugs the hole in the dam, or the cracks grow bigger and wider. Microsoft needs Windows 7 to be a success more than I think it currently realizes. The threat from Apple is real.

So what does Windows 7 need to do?

Continue reading this story…

Sorry, Mr. President Elect: Twitter Gets Hacked

Malicious users gained access to Twitter’s account support tools by exploiting an undisclosed security vulnerability and hacked into 33 high profile accounts, including those belonging to Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly, U.S. President Elect Barack Obama, and CNN anchor Rick Sanchez. The intrusions caused no real harm, but Twitter’s status as a soapbox for public figures obligates it to be more responsible going forward.

Twitter acknowledged the exploits on its blog, which it considered to have been a “very serious breach of security.” It took the tools offline and froze the affect accounts when it was alerted to the problem. The Twitter team speculated that the breach may have been prevented had it been using the open authentication protocol (OAuth), a protocol to allow secure API authorization from Web applications.

The hacker (or hackers) used the President Elect’s account (which had been inactive since election day) to plug a gas card offer, made O’Reilly a more interesting individual, and changed Sanchez’s status to, “high on crack and might not be coming into work today.” Screen grabs of the exploits have been posted by TechCrunch.

No real harm was done, but the hackers’ puerile statements could have caused a real kerfuffle. Had Barack Obama already been swore in as President, an inappropriate statement could have inflamed political tinderboxes around the world. Indeed, Officials of other governments have been using Twitter for official statements.

The Israeli Consulate has been using Twitter to explain its justification for its recent military action; the wrong statement could have made an already acute political and humanitarian situation worse. It may be time for public officials and governments to reconsider their participation in social media unless there has been some form of a security audit. Twitter should take the responsibilities that come with being an impactful channel for disseminating information seriously.

The TV station across the street from me has a security guard and uses access cards at the door for a reason. The same standard should apply to new media.

In an indication that Twitter has become hackers’ target de jour, the intrusions come on the heels of a major phishing campaign that took place over the weekend. An untold number of Twitter users were lured into giving up their passwords for the promise of an iPhone.

24 Hours to Go Until the Macworld Expo Keynote

…which is a good excuse to shamelessly plug (yes, again) our liveblog coverage of same. I hope you’ll join us at www.technologizer.com/macworld09 tomorrow morning!

A Keyboard That Keeps Going and Going

My friend Mark Evanier has an enjoyable ode today to Northgate keyboards–Northgate being the once-prominent-but-long-defunct PC clone manufacturer that made such great keyboards that folks are still buying, refurbishing, and using them. In an industry built on planned obsolescence–what are netbooks but disposable computers?–it’s pretty cool that there’s at least one product that was so well built that it’s outlived the company that built it by more than a decade and a half–so far.

(Me, I mostly work on notebooks these days and therefore have little say over the keyboard I use–though I like the keyboards on both the MacBook Pro and Lenovo ThinkPad that I bought last year, and they were factors in both purchases. The oldest piece of PC gear by far that I still use is a pair of Bose speakers; I got ‘em in 1994, and haven’t bought another set since.)

Google Books’ Great Leap Forward

The New York Times has a good piece on the settlement between Google and book publishers which will allow Google to provide full access to a far higher percentage of the vast quantity of books it’s been scanning for its Google Book Search project. I can’t wait–even though plans are for full-blown access to full text to be a paid service rather than an ad-supported freebie…

A Few Details About Palm’s New Phone?

CrunchGear is reporting just enough rumor about the first phone based on Palm’s upcoming “Nova” OS to be tantalizing but unsatisfying: It’ll supposedly have a slide-out keyboard and a software store. And the new OS is said to be “amazing.” I’m looking forward to Thursday’s Palm event at CES, when all–or at least more than nothing, which is what we know for sure now–will be revealed…

FileMaker 10′s Fresh New Face

Here’s the first bit of product news from Apple for Macworld Expo week, and it’s something noteworthy that Phil Schiller won’t even mention: Its FileMaker subsidiary has released FileMaker 10, a new version of its extremely venerable, extremely easy-to-use database manager for OS X and Windows. The most striking thing about the new version is the complete makeover that’s been given to the program’s user interface and bundled templates, which had barely changed in a long, long time. This is the first version in many years that doesn’t look a little long in the tooth, and it’s even more inviting to database newbies than its predecessors.

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A Letter From Steve Jobs

As I’ve said before, I’m neither a doctor nor an Apple shareholder, and there are few things more personal than one’s health. So I don’t like talking about Steve Jobs’ physical condition–especially when the only thing there is to write about is gossip. In fact, I don’t think I’ve written a single post that was principally about the subject.

But now Jobs has published a letter to the Apple community, and it addresses months of rumor about his weight loss and recent scuttlebutt that he opted out of giving tomorrow’s Macworld Expo keynote because he was too sick:

As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority.

Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause—a hormone imbalance that has been “robbing” me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis.

The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I’ve already begun treatment. But, just like I didn’t lose this much weight and body mass in a week or a month, my doctors expect it will take me until late this Spring to regain it. I will continue as Apple’s CEO during my recovery.

I hope that the letter–which seems to acknowledge obliquely that he bowed out of Macworld Expo at least in part to concentrate on his health–stifles further rumors rather than spawning a flurry of new ones. Aren’t you glad that your weight isn’t the subject of an avalanche of speculation–some of it by people who apparently thought they knew more about Steve Jobs’ health than the man himself did?

[UPDATE: Here's a letter from Apple's board of directors, saying, bascially, that it'll tell the world if Jobs is unable to serve as CEO.]

Microsoft May Have Made $1.5 Billion from Vista Capable Program

Microsoft’s “Vista Capable” program has gotten it into a good deal of hot water, including a class-action lawsuit that accuses the company of allowing the sticker to be placed on PCs that could only run the most basic version of Vista. That version came without all the bells and whistles, including the Aero UI which was the signature feature of the new OS.

Well, a monetary figure can now be attached to this program, showing the windfall profit Microsoft made from just allowing manufacturers to put a simple sticker on the PC. $1.5 billion. Yes, with a “b.”

That is the opinion of expert Keith Leffler, called on by the plaintiffs to estimate how much Microsoft may have made from the program. Leffler is a associate professor of economics with the University of Washington.

In a statement for the court, Dr. Leffler says his calculations indicate that Microsoft made $1.505 billion in licensing fees from the licensing program. A portion of his statement was redacted, but it seems as if Leffler estimated his figure from data from data provided by Redmond itself.

$1.5 billion is not chump change by any means. In fact, its practically pure profit as the company has to do little if anything other than print out the stickers for the manufacturers to use.

If the courts do find that Microsoft did indeed mislead consumers, you better believe they’ll be looking for the company to forfeit some of that money.

(Hat tip Seattle P-I)

We Need Your Predictions, You Need a Big Hard Drive

Quick reminder: We’re still looking for tech-related predictions for 2009 from members of the Technologizer community. And we’ll give away a cool Seagate 1TB external drive at random to one person who submits a prediction. We need ‘em by 12pm PT on this coming Wednesday, and will compile the best predictions into a story we’ll publish soon thereafter. Full details and a submission form here. Thanks, and hope that 2009 is treating you well so far…

Dueling Keynotes: Phil Schiller at Macworld Expo vs. Steve Ballmer at CES

(if you came here looking for our live coverage of the Macworld Expo 2009 keynote, head over here.)

Next week will see two tech trade show presentations by guys who are following very tough acts: Phil Schiller’s first (and last) Macworld Expo San Francisco keynote and Steve Ballmer’s first (and probably not last) Consumer Electronics Show one. Maybe I have a soft spot for underdogs–albeit extremely wealthy ones–but I’m actually looking forward to attending and covering both gentlemen’s speeches. (Trivia: I never went to any of the many, many keynotes by Bill Gates at Comdex and CES conferences that I covered.) I’ve already written a bit about the two keynotes; after the jump, a more formal comparison in the form of a T-Grid.

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Next Stop for iPhone OS and Android: Computers?

Two new rumors this week are different in the details but share an interesting overarching theme: TechCrunch is reporting that Apple is working on an iPhone OS-based tablet computer that’s essentially a giant iPod Touch for release this fall, and VentureBeat has a fascinating post that not only shows Google’s Android OS running on an Asus Eee PC but says the OS is hardwired to run on netbooks, and that Android netbooks will likely show up in 2010. We don’t know for sure that Apple will ever release more computer-like devices based on iPhone OS or that Android will migrate to laptops, but both ideas are utterly plausible. More plausible, in fact, than the possibility that both OSes will stay phone-only forever.

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