Dumping on Apple

It's finally time to talk about some articles that aren't too flattering for our favorite company in Cupertino. That's right, some dirt on Apple. They gave Leopard beta builds to attendees of WWDC, and it sounds like it has some ostensible UI issues. Did some of the Vista developers defect to Apple or something? Because it sounds akin to what people hate about Vista: GUI upgrades that are really downgrades. They made the top menu bar transparent, which looks retarded when you maximize applications. More ridiculous is that little Spotlight bar. Wow. What happened to subtle elegance, Apple? I'm not even a Mac user and I liked Panther. You'll probably be more shocked by some of the iPhone fine print though. I scoffed at this article at first because it was listing known facts, and then I almost fell out of my chair when I read that there was a limit on the number of times you can use WiFi. What the Hell is that?! Oh, and you can't send attachments in e-mails? It looks there are also restrictions on calling non-AT&T subscribers, and you can't stream video content from the Internet. If you text message international users, you get charged extra, or if you send messages over 300 KB, which I assume means e-mail since you can't send picture mail is my understanding. If you own an iPhone, that little expose is a must-read. Very disappointing, Apple and AT&T.

There is a bright spot for Mr. Jobs though, Apple stock has hit a record high with a market value of $115 billion. A 55% increase in 6 months is really impressive, and I don't imagine that the Apple TV did much for their stock so it must've been speculation on the iPhone.

One of the really painful things about using Windows if you also use Linux is missing utilities like cut and grep and such. Well, now there's Windows Grep, but I can't install it on my company laptop. It looks awesome though, so let me know if you try it out and like it/hate it by commenting.

The RIAA, in true villain style, has decided that if Sirius and XM merge that they're going to have to pay higher royalties. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure they already pay high royalties than broadcast radio stations do, and now they have to pay more? Why? Do they get better music or something? The FCC is hearing out the RIAA, who also are pissed about those portable devices to record satellite radio. How does this differ from using a cassette player or several mp3 players (including mine) to record live radio?

Oh, and I don't think I mentioned this before, but the FCC has an online form to submit comments on several issues, including the XM-Sirius merger and a la carte cable channels.

How awesome is that T-Shirt? I would totally wear it, but then again, I'm pretty vocal about hating DRM, and I'm a total dork. That design is the winner of a contest TorrentFreak was running for the best anti-DRM T-Shirt, and even the runner-ups are pretty cool.

I'm not usually easily swayed by up and coming social networking sites, but I'm really impressed by what I've seen of Streamy. I've signed up for the private beta, so I'll talk about it more if I get an invite. Basically, it's a mix between Digg, Google Reader, Jaiku, and Meebo. That's kind of a loose way of saying it, but it's a smart news aggregator that aims to make sharing easy and prioritizes what you're likely to want to see. Trust me, it's cooler than it sounds.

Lastly, Time put up an article on the 5 worst websites, and I don't think those sites are really the five worst, but I felt that MySpace and Evite being on there is important because they're both popular sites that have serious issues. I also learned from it that eHarmony discriminates against gays, which means that I'm officially going to start railing on eHarmony if anyone ever talks to me about it.

The only movie news today are teases. One is for Indiana Jones 4, which is little more than a look at Indy's outfit and talking to Steven Spielberg. It's not a trailer, just, quite literally, a little tease. At least Ford can still has the look down. The teaser trailer for 10,000 BC gives us much more, but I have no desire to see it. It almost makes me think the creators were watching Apocalypto and decided to make a movie that went farther back, which doesn't sound exciting (though Apocalypto wasn't bad, just long).

Now for a Wednesday Mind Hump:

1. What makes you cheer up?
Thinking about my girl

2. Who makes you cheer up?
My girlfriend =)

3. What location makes you cheer up?
My bed

4. What food or beverage makes you cheer up?
Ice cream!