"What we really need is for the legal department to slap a $2 billion fine on Apple over anti-competitive behaviors

Apple, Inc. could pay that out of their petty cash.

and forcing developers to use the App Store,

The only Mac App Store purchase (so far) was Angry Birds for the MacBook. Everything else on the Macs here is third party or non App Store Apple/Mac apps (Aperture, iWorks, for example).

  not to mention not making music purchased on iTunes work on other music players."

iTunes tracks have been DRM free for years. Oh, you have DRMed iTunes tracks? Burn a CD, rerip as MP3. No DRM. iTunes DRM was REQUIRED by the RIAA, not Apple.

FUD failure, there, Slappy.

SoundJam MP.

SoundJam MP was, perhaps, the first genuinely useful MP3 application for the Macintosh. One could easily rip CDs to MP3, mix songs as one wished in playlists, and then burn them to CD.

Rip. Mix. Burn. Where have we heard that before?

It even had support built in for the few MP3 players of the time.

Review of an early incarnation of SoundJam.

Review of the final revision.

And, the ObWiki entry .

MacLife history of iTunes .

Without SoundJam MP. there would likely have been no iTunes, as Apple bought SoundJam MP, filed off the serial numbers, slapped a coat of paint on it and called it iTunes V1.0.

Well, yeah, there still would have been AN iTunes. Apple would have just bought Audion .

So, while the iPod was indeed a seachange for the portable music player (cassette/CD/digital) of the era, without the software to support it as easily and as elegantly as SoundJam, er, "iTunes", it was the software that made the iPod the success it was and remains to this day.

This right here!

Oh, look! It's the South Park turd fan, back again.

Just like the last time, spreading his BS about "freedom".

Dude, take. your. meds. Or your Cheetos. Which ever salms you down and allows you to actually think rationally.

Kthnxbai!

Are Apple ninjas forcing you to buy Apple hardware?

If yes, you're a loony.

If no, WTF are you complaining about?

If you don't want an iPod, buy a Zune.

Oh, wait...

Right.

Haters gonna hate.

They hate that Apple doesn't suck up to their particular hardware/software/user interface fetish.

They hate Apple because Apple doesn't care a fat rat's ass what they think or say about Apple.

They hate Apple because when they got to the opening day of their local Apple Store, the Store had run out of free T-shirts, which meant that they HAD to do laundry and not put it off another few days.

Yes, and keep your filthy govt. hands off my Medicare and Social Security and someone fetch me a fresh battery for my electric scooter chair that Medicare gave me!

I'm sure you meant to write,

"Legally and ethically obtained the non-exclusive rights to the intellectual property of the GUI and Mouse from Xerox PARC."

Oh, wait, then you wouldn't be repeating a lie that is dead. Dead and buried. With a one meter layer of concrete over the gravesite, and an Apple Store built on it.

Haters gonna hate, and do a remarkably pisspoor job of it, too.

If I may correct you, it too the BUSH administration and FEMA, whose appointed director, was a friend of Bush, that took five days to respond to the aftermath of Katrina.

"Brownie" had essentially zero experience in running any kind of federal agency tasked with swift response.

(Indeed, one of his previous jobs was some manner of officer in a horse breeding group. And he was fired from that post, if I recall correctly)

Remember, this is the same administration that ignored the PDB of August 6, 2001, "Bin Laden Determined To Strike Inside The U.S.", headed by a president who told the CIA briefer who hand carried this document to Bush's Potemkin 'ranch', "OK, you've covered your ass."

Anyone who expected any manner of leadership or effective government response from that administration was fooling their self.

My needs while travelling. Email, some web use, music player, and, of course, ereader. If I got an Eye-Fi wireless SD card for the camera, so I could get pictures into the Nook via WiFi, then MAYBE I might need a simple photo editor.

If the 7" Galaxy Tab was more realistically priced, I'd probably get one of those, but seeing as B&N is selling refurbed Nook Color tablets on eBay for less than US$200...

"You must stay at some fancy hotels. The hotels I've stayed in (Hampton, Holiday inn, various resorts in Orlando, FL for example) have safes that might be big enough for a small tablet like the 7" galaxy tab. I've not seen one that would accommodate a laptop.

My MacBook is a 13" edition. I've yet to encounter a safe I can't get it into.

To be honest, a hacked NOOK Color would suit my travelling needs almost as well as the MacBook.

Yep. Whenever my MacBook is with me outside of the the apartment, it is either in in the shoulderbag (which looks NOTHING like a laptop case), actually under my fingers as I'm typing, or, in the case of out of town events, locked in the room safe when I am not using it.

He can now squeeze a few more months of life out of his insane Mars conspiracy theories.

How insane, you ask?

Try this: Buck Rogers View-Master Reels .

That's some mighty good crackpottery, right there!

Pathetic anonymous coward, who is too pathetic and cowardly to put its real name to a comment, says what?

I am in agreement with your comments.

As an old Commodore hand, I am quite taken with your user number.