Apple, the consumer electronics giant

This is how The Financial Express, a business newspaper in India, characterizes Apple in an article about the Apple TV entering the Indian market:

Apple, the $19.5-billion US consumer electronics giant

I believe thats the first time I have come across piece that describes Apple as a “consumer electronics giant”. I guess its apt – considering the success of the iPod.

As an aside:

Rajeshwar Singh Butalia, head of retail in Apple’s Indian subsidiary Apple Computer International Pvt Ltd, is confident that Apple TV will be a success here.

Hmm. The Apple TV is priced 42% more than the US retail and there are only 2.5M broadband subscribers. I wonder what Mr. Butalia considers a success: 1%? 10%? I suppose adding anything to a less than 1% share is good.

Microsoft Unveils Microsoft Math 3.0

Microsoft press release touting Math 3.0:

Microsoft Math 3.0 features an extensive collection of capabilities to help students tackle complicated problems in pre-algebra, algebra, trigonometry, calculus, physics and chemistry, and puts them all in one convenient place on the home PC.

All that sounds great. And then this shows up:

The new Ink Handwriting Support works with Tablet and Ultra-Mobile PCs, allowing students to write out a problem by hand and acquire assistance from Microsoft Math.

Great. Does Microsoft how much a Tablet or UMPC retails for? Is it anywhere close to fitting within school budgets?

Death by stoning for copyright violation and software piracy

This has to be a joke or a way to get the heat off Gonzales for the other shit he is involved in:

The Bush administration is throwing its support behind a proposal called the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007, which is likely to receive the enthusiastic support of the movie and music industries and would represent the most dramatic rewrite of copyright law since a 2005 measure dealing with pre-release piracy.

The IPPA would, for instance:

* Criminalize “attempting” to infringe copyright. Federal law currently punishes not-for-profit copyright infringement with between 1 and 10 years in prison, but there has to be actual infringement that takes place. The IPPA would eliminate that requirement.

* Create a new crime of life imprisonment for using pirated software.

* Permit more wiretaps for piracy investigations. Wiretaps would be authorized for investigations of Americans who are “attempting” to infringe copyrights.

* Allow computers to be seized more readily.

* Increase penalties for violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s anti-circumvention regulations. Currently criminal violations are currently punished by jail times of up to 10 years and fines of up to $1 million. The IPPA would add forfeiture penalties too.

* Add penalties for “intended” copyright crimes.

* Require Homeland Security to alert the Recording Industry Association of America.

Seriously, life imprisonment? “Intended crimes”? Does this make any sense? I am shocked that this has received the “enthusiastic support of the movie and music industries”.