Daring Fireball digs up a clam of a claim chowder

DF:

Stewart Alsop in February 1997:

Let’s get this straight right away: Apple Computer did the wrong thing. On December 20, Apple announced that it would spend $400 million to purchase Steve Jobs’s company, Next Software. The company said it would adopt Next’s NextStep operating system for future versions of the Macintosh computer. Most of the commentary I’ve seen about this decision is off the mark, especially the talk about Jobs coming back to save Apple. That is sheer nonsense. He won’t be anywhere near the company.

Precious.

Crunchpad dies. Snark and spreading rumors is easy. Building stuff is hard

The End Of The CrunchPad

Because throwing money around for eyeballs always works

The old dotcom strategy worked out so well for pets.com and etoys:

Microsoft has had discussions with News Corp over a plan that would involve the media company’s being paid to “de-index” its news websites from Google, setting the scene for a search engine battle that could offer a ray of light to the newspaper industry.

Microsoft’s google envy is gonna destroy it.

Things to do in a Microsoft store while waiting for a PC to reboot from a crash

More rain on MS’s parade:

During a speech at Columbia University, the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, said that his rival at Apple, Steve Jobs, has ‘done a fantastic job.’ Then Gates froze up and had to be restarted. ” — Jimmy Fallon

From today’s shareholders meeting:

There were the standard questions on executive compensation and employee ethics. But one shareholder also stood out and said that the company was a “buffoon” in the eyes of young people.

Yep, sounds about right.

Stephen Colbert: The AK-47 is like the Windows OS of guns

Guest: No, it’s more reliable than that.

The Colbert Report	Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
AK-47 Designer Celebrates His Birthday – John Pike
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor U.S. Speedskating

The mythical Apple tablet gets new life

More time for traffic trolls to pass on rumors! Imagine that:

Rumor: Apple tablet delayed

Apple tablet delayed until late 2010

I had no idea that Craig Newmark had a daughter

Talk about separated at birth!

 

Travis Bryant, with his daughter, Ivey, reading “The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril” on his iPhone at their home in Alabama.

 

 

Hot sources: Apple Tablet In October For $800

The tablet noise continues to grow but is there a tablet?

Apple Tablet In October For $800, Says China Times (AAPL)
Not cheap, but if it’s awesome, netbook makers won’t know what hit them.

Apple Says The Tablet Is For Web Surfing, Books, Newspapers, And Movies (AAPL)

Analysts: Tablet Could Offer ‘Stunning’ Graphics

Then it gets scary (I’d generally wait to say something is awesome until I have the chance to see it, to feel it, but that’s just me):

“This will be the next big thing,” said Laura DiDio, principal analyst at ITIC. “Apple is going to wow everybody with the tablet.”

“Apple will come out with the tablet and blow everyone away,” said Dan Ackerman, senior editor at CNET. “Instead of taking along a Kindle and an iPod, that [tablet] could become the device you carry with you.”

“The Tablet will be awesome, and my guess is that it will be an instant hit for people who loved Kindles and people who want netbooks,” said David Wertheimer, executive director of the University of Southern California’s Entertainment Technology Center.

Finally, one dissenter. Whew! And even better its not Enderle!

“What we’ve found in the past with these multi-function devices is that they’re better for ad-hoc purposes, like quick and dirty tasks,” said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with Yankee Group. “They’re not for any prolonged, high-performance use.”

Remember that the NY Times was prepping for a Apple Tablet?

New York Times preparing for ‘impending Apple slate’

And then it was some Aussie outfit?

More evidence of Apple’s nonexistent tablet surfaces

Today, its Conde Nast!

Conde Already Prepping ‘Wired’ For Apple Tablet

So, though we have no idea if the tablet is true or not, it exists enough to drive large amounts of traffic to rumor sites.

Long live the Tablet.

Listen up, folks, Psystar is not David

PC World asks:

That’s a big win for Apple, but is it a victory for you?

Yes.

If Psystar had managed to win, Apple may have been forced over time, either by the courts or market pressures, to support a wider range of possible hardware configurations as Microsoft Windows does. Now, however, Apple can continue as it has developing products tailored specifically for its operating system.

Yes. How dare Apple have the freedom to choose its own business model and spend their own cash on developing the things they want to own and control? Why, that’s free market thievery.

And that’s really the crux of the whole debate. A lot of people may want to own a Mac, but Apple’s high prices make it hard to justify spending $1000 on a 13-inch laptop, when you can buy a similar Windows machine for two-thirds that price–albeit with downgraded specs.

Quality should come cheaper – you know like high quality cheap toys from China or high quality cheap shrimp from Thailand.

But then again, isn’t there something instinctively wrong about accepting a system or product, regardless of its quality, that reduces consumer choice?

I thought you said there were other choices buy a similar Windows machine for two-thirds that price–albeit with downgraded specs”?

Isn’t there something to be said about assigning value to a product and not necessarily going for cheap all the time? Here, go read Cheap by Ellen Ruppel Smith and the horrible effects of cheap on the American economy and culture.

And isn’t there something about demanding that others step to the plate with a higher quality product?

Isn’t there something to be said about a company that doesn’t want to play the market share game or compete on price and lose their shirt?

You know, maybe I can start a publication called PysPCWorld and just reproduce content from PC World because I want to increase “consumer choice” about where they get PC World articles from. What does PC World say about that?

Copyright and Trademarks
The Service is the personal property of PCWCI. PCWCI retains the right to bar any individual or entity from the Service. Accessing the Service after being barred shall constitute an act of trespass. The Service and all materials published therein, including but not limited to articles, graphical images, interactive applications, audio clips, and video clips (collectively, the “Content”), are protected by copyright and are owned by PCWORLD.COM or its licensors. You may not modify the Content or re-publish, re-transmit, or otherwise distribute directly or via links any Content to any third person except for your personal, non-commercial use, as permitted by the license granted above.

Oh. How’s that for reducing consumer choice and impeding freedom and all that inconvenient stuff?

Psystar fought the law and the law won

The Inquirer laments Psystar’s case:

Psystar opened its doors a couple of years ago operating under the premise that people who paid for software could chose what machine they ran it on. It flogged cheap computers running Jobs’ Mobs operating systems.

You can! You just can’t make it a commercial business (notice how many users there are on myminidell’s os x forum?)

This naïve view attacked the very core of Apple, which believes that users should only buy what Steve Jobs tells them and pay over the odds for expensive gear.

What a quaint notion: trying to sell things based on a specific business model. All business models should conform to a Windows licensing model (and according to Enderle, Apple should make it simple for consumers by adding to Microsoft’s coffers by licensing Windows!)

Apple has won its court battle against upstart Psystar, which dared to disagree with the will of Steve Jobs.

Hmm – actually, Steve Jobs had nothing to with it, Psystar dared something called “law” and lost.