Does anyone know if the EPP (Employee Purchase Plan) discounts are good in the store as well as online? I am buying a macbook and I am trying to find out. I called the store, but they didn't have a clue. I guess I will end up having to go to the store to actually find out.

If anyone does know, let me know.

Within hours of Apple's public release of the beta for Safari 3.0 for Windows, three security researchers independently found holes within the new browser. Researcher Aviv Raff highlighted in a blog post the company's product statement, that reads: "Apple's engineers designed Safari to be secure from day one." Raff found a vulnerability, a memory corruption error that could allow an attacker to insert malicious code on a Windows machine, within three minutes using publicly available fuzzing tools.

Security researcher David Maynor, posting on his Errata security blog, said he was also able to generate a memory corruption error "in no time." By the end of the day, he was able to generate a total of six bugs--four producing a denial of service (crash), and two capable of executing remote code.

Veteran security researcher Thor Larholm wrote in his blog that he found a "0day" vulnerability in Safari within two hours. The flaw exists in how Safari handles URL protocols within Windows, causing a denial of service (crash). Larholm has published an exploit to demonstrate the flaw.

All of the vulnerabilities were found on Windows machines; none of the researchers could say whether these flaws also existed on the Mac OS.

source: http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9728500-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

"For myself, I can't justify the cost of buying an expensive new system that does less than my ugly, hodge-podge, dual-boot Windows/Linux system, no matter how pleasantly it does the tasks it can. Sure, the iLife suite is an impressive software package, thrown in "free," but if you already have a powerful computer, even buying Windows commercial software (Sony Music Studio, Adobe Premiere Elements, Picasa, etc.) to get the same functionality as iLife will cost you less money than buying a brand new Mac system.

[More]

"Only a month after the much-heralded announcement of the iPhone, Apple CEO Steve Jobs confirmed that his engineers were already working around-the-clock on the touchscreen smartphone's far-superior replacement. "We looked at [the iPhone's] innovative user interface, the paradigm-shifting voicemail, the best-in-class mobile browser, and we realized we could make all that seem ridiculously outdated by the time the product becomes available to customers in June," said Jobs, who described the project as "Apple reinventing the iPhone." "When the second-generation iPhone comes out this fall, we want iPhone users to feel not just jealous, but downright foolish for owning such laughably primitive technology." Jobs also hinted that the second iPhone device would not be compatible with existing Mac computers, third-party peripherals, or any future Apple products."

The article is from The Onion and is a joke, but it a lot of it is true when it comes to their products. They come out with so many updated products and new products it would be crazy for anyone to try to keep up. Buy an ipod today and in a few months they will have another version out that makes your obsolete. I know that this is true with all technologies, but it gets to a point where it is silly. Why not delay a product a little bit longer and release the mega-superdooper product instead of releasing the normal superdooper product early.

source: http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/apple_hard_at_work_making

With the way that television is changing and with our options opening up to other mediums to viewing our shows I think that it is sad that we have to pay upwards of $40 to watch a full season of some shows. That is almost the cost of the DVD set and the quality of the shows on iTunes are far less than that of the DVD. Apple needs do something different with the networks. They should be offering the shows for free with commercials for users to download. If they offered shows for free with commercials, I would actually get an ipod. As it stands I would rather wait for the end of the season and buy the DVD's and rip them to watch them on whatever platform I want.

Oh well, that is my daily rant...

[More]

"The investigation showed solder joints between two components had broken, so a current could no longer pass through them. The breakage was found to occur because the joints loosen slightly every time the computer is turned on and off.

'It is a bit like a person dying a little bit every time he breathes because the cells break down,' C.C.B. lawyer Frederik Navne waxed poetically. 'In the same way, the computer dies a little every time you turn it on and off.' "

When do you think Apple will step up and fix the issues?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/03/danish_consumer_complaints_board_claim_ibook_defect/

It looks like Cingular wasn't the first choice for the new iPhone. They approached Verizon nearly 2 years ago for them to carry their phone. Verizon ultimately rejected the deal saying what Apple wanted wasn't good for Verizon or for its customers.

"The problem? While Apple and Verizon stores would have it, Wal-Mart, Best Buy and other Verizon distributors could have been left out. 'That would have put our own distribution partners at a disadvantage' to Apple and Verizon stores, Gerace said.

Customer care was another hitch: If an iPhone went haywire, Apple wanted sole discretion over whether to replace or repair the phone. 'They would have been stepping in between us and our customers to the point where we would have almost had to take a back seat ... on hardware and service support,' Gerace says."

I can just about guarantee that the terms they brought to Cingular were almost identical to those they presented to Verizon.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2007-01-28-verizon-iphone_x.htm

Ok, I am not a complete Apple basher, but Gizmodo has posted a top 5 list of the reasons why the iPhone Sucks.

1. No removable battery: You mean we can't take along a spare battery? WTF?
2. No 3G: EDGE is so last year
3. No expansion slot. Go for the 8-gig model and that's it.
4. 5-hour talk time: not enough battery life
5. 2-megapixel camera when others have 5-megapixel shooters on board

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/cellphones/top-five-reasons-why-the-iphone-sucks-228100.php

I should also post the original that Gizmodo got their post from, there is also a lot more reasoning behind each of the top 5 items here:

http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/top_5_technical_drawbacks_of_the_iphone.php

UPDATE: CNN reports on the iphone in asia:

It looks as though Apple is getting a dose of its own medicine with all the products starting with a lowercase "i". I remember many cases where Apple sued companies because they came out with products that started with "i" because of their use of it in their own products.

I think this is a severe case of "we don't want to pay you for it". Apple is actually arguing that since this is the first time the term "iPhone" has been used for a cellphone that they can use it. A trademark like this doesn't cover its use on a specific device, it protects the name.

This whole thing would be like me going out and starting a company that built and sold a computer called the "iPod". I would get sued so fast from Apple it wouldn't be funny. This is what is going on now. Cisco owns the trademark on the term "iPhone" and they use it for their line of VOIP phones. Apple is coming in and saying we are the first cellphone to use the name, so we have the right to use it.

Who is to say also that the other companies that are currently using "iPhone" are not paying Cisco for rights or that Cisco hasn't caught on to them using it in the marketplace.

From Engadget:
"He called Cisco's trademark "tenuous at best" and noted his company was the first to ever use the name for a cellphone. He goes on to boast that Cisco is gonna totally get served: 'if Cisco wants to challenge us on it, we're very confident we'll prevail.'"

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/11/apple-says-cisco-lawsuit-is-silly/

From Gizmodo:

I know the above is a little old and has made its rounds on the net many times, but it is still very funny. Probably the funniest thing is that most of it is very true with the iPhone and all.

http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/laptops-pcs/apple/apple-iproduct-029502.php

http://www.aboyandhiscomputer.com/show.php?ItemID=2204

This is an interesting piece I found over at Engadget. If you look at the images below of the iPhone and the LG KE850 you will see how similar that they are. With the trouble that Apple is in with Cisco over the use of the "iPhone" trademark, could this signal another lawsuit? The phones look very very similar, but I am not sure if that could be the basis for a lawsuit or not.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/11/iphone-and-lg-ke850-separated-at-birth/