I believe he may have been implying that the exact opposite could easily be true. Someone working at a company (for simplicity's sake, lets say Microsoft) and leaves. They then do some GPL contributions using code they wrote for their past employer. I'm not saying this is exactly the case, but it easily could be. TFA leaves a large amount of reasonable doubt in defense of Microsoft. He'll require a lot more to prove it. I believe in this country, you're innocent til proven guilty. You'll need a lot more than circumstantial evidence here.

There are Windows laptops with both those features you mentioned (auto-adjusting screen/keyboard lighting). XP is more than capable of it (i know, I own one). From what I'm hearing, Apple provides the drivers and has been known to leave out various features (someone mentioned that you can't click the trackpad to perform a mouse click in XP), so its quite possibly Apple's fault and they may use this as a talking point.

Nothing about that quote even remotely backs up your conclusion.

Well, the same principle applies. There really isn't any reason why any program should require IE to be the default browser. Write, call, email, etc. to the company and tell them to change their practices. As alternative browsers pickup market share and IE's drops, they'll be forced to update their practices.

I've never used Quick Books, so I can't comment on what parts don't work correctly without IE being the default, but I'm curious to know whether its one of those overblown exaggerations by the developers instead of saying, "We never tested it on this browser because we didn't feel like it," and in the end, the application works just fine whether IE is default or not.

I'd rather get targeted advertisements that I may actually be interested in as opposed to random advertisements.

well... it sort of is. you're electing which browser should be on your PC. You just happen to be the only voter as well. Personally, I think they just liked the alliteration.

Those last two examples sound more like accidents as opposed to attacks. The fact that correct info was sent to every other browser except Opera makes it seem like they just didn't bother testing with Opera and therefore the mistake went unfound until it went public.

Thats not MS's fault and those companies don't "work with them regularly." Those are lazy web developers. If you run into a site that is IE only, contact the site, tell them you're not using it because it doesn't support multiple browsers and tell them they lost a customer. If enough people do that, they'll be forced to start allowing other browsers.

I doubt they'll press a CD. They'll either download the installation of your choice or include the installations for those various browsers on Windows (not sure if they'd be allowed to do that though). I think having them link to download pages is the most efficient and best way to go as everyone will always get access to the most recent release of the chosen browser. Its safe to assume an internet connection or else the user is an idiot for trying to browse the web without one.

Did you read what I typed? I said Apple doesn't let you pick and choose. You have to go all Apple or no Apple. Then you, apparently trying to somehow offer a contradiction, point out how you buy all Apple. How is that in any way refuting what I said? Its like you wanted to just jump out and prove my point for me.

I can confirm they don't mess with the ID3 tags. There are a multitude of easy to use applications that will rename mp3s based on their ID3 tags. You can easily copy a file from the iPod (because, surprise, its not some magical custom filesystem. Maybe a custom folder structure, but that stops no one). Honestly, I have no clue why they rename the music files. It really could possibly help improve performance. I don't really know. It could be a way to ensure that files never have the same name. They could just be the unique ID to the file and instead of changing the ID3 tag, they just change the filename. It eliminates the need of a relationship of ID to filename. All it needs is the ID and the information about the song. It doesn't need another column about where to find the file because, bam, the ID and the filename are the same. Is this really the case? I have no clue. But I'm just saying, they do *not* mess with the ID3 tags and its not a custom filesystem as its easily read by Windows as a harddrive and you can copy stuff to it. Filesystem != folder structure/hierarchy. I wrote software for a digital x-ray machine. Think we named every file created after the animal and what body part? Hell no. We used a unique identifier. it was virtually impossible for another file to get created with the same name (virtually, not actually).

I've copied mp3s off an ipod. I've run software that uses the ID3 tags to rename them in a format of my choosing (normally "artist - album - track - title.mp3").

I have an iPhone 3G. I actually still feel remorse about buying it because of purchasing a product from Apple. I feel better when I buy from Microsoft than when I buy from Apple. I still feel remorse at buying from MS, but sometimes I need what they provide. Sometimes I need what Apple provides. I don't have time to wait around for someone to do it the right way. Honestly, I think the Pre may be pretty close, but I'm not switching mid-contract. When my contract is up, I may consider it though.

Why do you insist that Palm is "resorting" to this? I applaud them for it. I like iTunes. Now, I'm not being forced to purchase an iPhone (though, I'm not gonna lie, I do own one, but at least in the future, my options may be open) just so that I don't have to deal with extra software. I think its absolutely ingenious what Palm did. They're enabling their customers to not have to relearn anything. They're not forcing their customers to drop their media player of choice. They're not forcing their customers to run multiple library management software suites. They're making the life of the customer easier for them. THEY GIVING THE CUSTOMER WHAT THEY WANT.

Why are you so anti-customer and so pro-corporate? You cannot justify your position and actually care about the consumer in anyway? Apple is absolutely anti-consumerist here. They're not giving a really large portion of the population what they want. Palm is filling that niche. iTunes isn't going to be a make or break for many people. Most folks will either like the Pre or the iPhone better than the other. Palm is at least making it easier for its customers. Kinda like how APPLE CAN BOOT WINDOWS TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR PEOPLE WHO USE WINDOWS. If Apple was so great, why'd they have to resort to boot camp to convince people to switch to a Mac? Isn't their OS good enough to stand on its own that they wouldn't need to reassure folks that they can still run windows? (Honestly, i don't believe that, but basically, your argument applies there. Either you don't have faith in Apple's OS and think they need to rely on Windows OR your argument is full of shit. You're not getting modded down because people disagree with you. You're getting modded down because your argument is horrendously weak, has nothing to do with anything, and really only consists of you trying to insult Palm because they were intelligent enough to sell a product that people want.

If someone wants to stick with iTunes, they have to buy an iPhone and nothing else? So Apple is definitely not about choice in your opinion. You either have to go all Apple or no Apple at all. Whatever happened to buying products you like. Apple's intention for iTunes to sell iPods/iPhones notwithstanding, iTunes is a standalone application. There is no reason why you shouldn't be able to use one and not the other except for completely arbitrary business reasons, which in the end, are bad for the consumer. Pre is being the good guy here. They realize good software. They don't want to take that away from their consumers. They also don't want to burden them with more software. Apple is making their customers' lives difficult. If they use iTunes, they're still Apple customers. Maybe they aren't purchasing the other things Apple wants to sell them, but since when do you get to punish your customers because they only buy one product and not everything in the entire store.

Don't be mistaken. Apple isn't punishing Palm with this one. They're punishing consumers who've decided to buy a competing product. Apple is kind of a dick like that. I'm not saying other companies don't do it, but lets call a spade a spade.

CDMA world phones will actually also carry a GSM chip as well so it will work abroad (CDMA is bigger in the US than the world in general). So it can use GSM when CDMA is absent. The only technical reason is that it requires an entirely different chip in the phone. So, most phones come with one or the other, however, some will come with both.

There is a small difference. Not all cell networks are compatible. If all cell phones had to work on all networks, manufacturers would have to spend more to create different phones or just jam every chip in there like they do with world phones. It *could* cause handset prices to jump (above retail, not subsidized) at least temporarily until the market works itself out and they can figure out how better to address the issue (ie: how many of each phone generally goes to each network, is it cheaper to make different models as opposed to one model, etc.)