I know you probably know this, but that is a problem only in the USA (and Canada?). AT&T really sux by all accounts, and Apple did a deal with the devil there. Again, that was because AT&T was the only nation-wide (approx) network that did things the way the rest of the world does, and Apple didn't want different models for North America only (the way every other cell phone maker does).

Otherwise the parent post is right - Apple sidestep the carrier on software features and roll-outs, more so than anyone else in the North American market (again, in the rest of the world, carriers have less monopolistic lock-in).

that no other browser has, that I know of - you can over ride the fonts a page specifies. Which is fantastic, as I don't ever want to look at a serif font on my screen. I like chrome and safari, but until I can do this I will never use them as my main browser.

Here's a screenshot of the config setting: http://imgur.com/RvBBO.jpg

Murdoch has got it ass-about. The reason that print media is dying is that the classified advertising model that was so profitable for so long has died. Craigslist has done far, far more damage to Murdoch's business than Google ever has, and there's nothing he can do about it. The cover price on newspapers doesn't even get close to covering the printing cost, let alone profit.

Another thing, maybe he can see coming. Online media provides a way of measuring advertising efficiency, something that is not possible in print. Count the clicks. As corporate advertising etc is going online so bean counters can know it's effectiveness. Same goes for job ads.

Print is dying because its advertising is obsolescent, not because of Google. Murdoch must know that

jeez pal, welcome to 1958.

the world has changed.

dude, that was quite a while ago. these days, i don't think so. it's totally run for the benefit of the super-rich, and they couldn't give a shit.

the only way to get anything to change in the USA is to make it profitable for lawyers to spearhead it. i'm quite serious. the legislature just has to amend things slightly to give litigation a fighting chance, and you can fix anything. want health care reform, then make it feasible to sue an HMO for lying or gouging or collusion (it isn't now). want to fix manufacturing, make it possible to sue corporations for work practises overseas they couldn't do in the US. want to fix the tax base, stop corporations parking themselves off shore in tax havens. want to stop the banks mispricing risk and keeping dodgy debts off the books, make it easier to delve into their workings on threat of suit by shareholders etc.

once lawyers start making hay, everyone else will fall into line!

I agree with you about economic interdependence, but I reckon cultural interdependence helps a shitload too. The economic interdependence argument was very popular in about 1910. Europe couldn't possibly go to war, they said! Well, it turned out to be pretty easy to get folks to hate each other and go kill and die for something as abstract and ultimately arbitrary as the idea of the state. Best thing is to share the love! (er, civil wars - what was I saying?)

Try finance.google.com

Actually, I've left off a bunch if Chinese banks, some of which have market caps over a trillion dollars. (Banks are different - another story).

Also, I left out BHP-Billiton (world's largest miner) which slots in between Apple and Microsoft.

Walmart and Berkshire-Hathaway are about the same cap as Apple, and will swap around in order ona daily basis (as did Google, until they release their phone!)

Market capitaization. ie, it's stock price multiplied by the number of share on issue.

There's no "one" way to measure a company's size. The Forbes article is horrendously out of date on market cap. Apple is the clear #2 tech stock now behind microsoft. I think at the moment, the order goes Exxon, Microsoft, PetroChina, then Apple.

It's really big, and the fact that its price to earnings ratio is much higher than any other really huge company means the market thinks its profits are fairly safe, with more upside.

Well, Apple could kill iTunes for windows. Oh wait, that would trash their music sales and crack the iPhone ecosystem. Yes, you are probably right.

Or, Apple has looked around at the hardware guys in the business space and realized the margins are shit in that little race to the bottom.

Plus, there's a long term play that says software costs will go to near zero and hardware and support is where all the money will be, and margins are shit in hardware, and support is a cartel of sysadmins...

All true. Also, if you spec out a Dell (or HP, or Lenovo) workstation comparable to a Mac Pro, they'll come out more expensive for an inferior build quality.

I do think the mini is a little overpriced for what it is, leaving aside harder to costimate things like lifetime and usability.

And don't get me started on laptops. Sony and Fujitsu are waaaay more overpriced than similar spec'd Macs, though I never see anyone bitching about it. And for non-ruggedized laptops, the mac build quality is second to none.

Yeah, but Microsoft themselves keep breaking compatibility between versions of excel. We have a lot of VBA macros developed in Office 2003 that needed significant rewriting for Office 2007. And as I understand it, Miserablesoft have said they won't support VBA at all in Office 2010 (I hope I am corrected on this) and want everything ported to .net. I understand their reasons and the POS security model in VBA, but it's not fair to crow about excel compatibility being Holy Writ. (And personally, I think excel is the best thing misanthopicsoft have ever done by far.)

bang on goombah99. a corollary of what you've said is that the maintenance for this thing is gonna be much much simpler than for a general purpose PC. i reckon that will be a monster word-of-mouth selling point. folks will be telling each other other how bloody simple it all is compared to the PC that's gathering dust in the back room.

but think how you'd use this. it's an appliance for consuming digital entertainment and information. it's not that big. this will not be used like a regular general purpose laptop is used. the only issue i see is flash support, but i'm willing to bet my own money that adobe will be on the platform in 60 days when Jobs is announcing a lot more details on this thing, and a few more features. adobe will have got their shit together and released a much less fucked up flash (probably with some DRM in it so apple can keep pron of the thing!)

you're missing the computer-as-appliance thing. this is not a general purpose computer, this is for consuming digital entertainment and information content. and it'll sell well because that's all a very great number of people want a computer for (ie, not futzing about). think of a car as a personal transportation appliance. then imagine if people pretty much had to maintain their own cars.

Slate is a pretty horrible word (so is tablet). I imagine Jobs just screaming "no no no", and maybe firing someone just for fun at suggesting one of those. I though it would be iNote, with iPad a distant second choice. I guess they thought iNote would confuse people with notebooks, or hurt their notebook sales, so iPad it is (not withstanding tampon jokes). And they do want to convery the sense it a product between the iphone and the imac notebooks, so a pad kinda fits that.