TidBITS#799/03-Oct-05
=====================
It's a soap opera week, with Adam's investigation of how Apple has
inexplicably requested that Google disapprove AdWords ads that use
Apple trademarks. Then Jeff Carlson turns his attention to the
recent announcement that Palm will be producing a Treo that uses
Windows Mobile rather than the Palm OS. In the news, EMC Dantz has
released Retrospect 6.1 to provide full Tiger compatibility, and
Apple responds to complaints about scratched iPod nano screens.
Topics:
MailBITS/03-Oct-05
DealBITS Drawing: A Stuffed Dog and Fetch 5.0
Windows Treo Questions Palm OS Future
Apple Cracks Down on Google AdWords
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/03-Oct-05
<http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-799.html>
<ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/issues/2005/TidBITS#799_03-Oct-05.etx>
Copyright 2005 TidBITS: Reuse governed by Creative Commons license
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MailBITS/03-Oct-05
------------------
**Apple Addresses Flaws in Some iPod nanos** -- Shortly after
writing about the iPod nano (see "New iPod nano Replaces iPod
mini" in TidBITS-796_), a reader wrote to me asking, "What about
the issue of reports of the easy breaking of the screen when there
has been no obvious / excessive / accidental misuse of the iPod
nano?" As the device had only been out a few days, I had no idea
what he was talking about. Soon, though, I began to see reports
on the Web about people having problems with iPod nano screens
cracking without being mishandled, as well as scratched screens.
At that point, I didn't pay it much attention: when dealing with
hundreds of thousands of consumer hardware devices, some flawed
ones are bound to appear.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08242>
<http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/>
Last week, however, Apple's Senior Vice President of Worldwide
Marketing Phil Schiller addressed the problem in an interview with
Macworld Magazine. He said that less than one-tenth of one percent
of the iPod nano units suffer from a manufacturing defect, and
that owners with the problem can call AppleCare to have the iPod
replaced. As for the scratches, Schiller noted that the screens
use the same materials found on the current iPod color line, which
have not generated complaints. (One enterprising owner documented
his success at using a $4 can of Brasso to bring his black iPod
nano back to like-new condition.) [JLC]
<http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/09/27/nanoscreen/index.php>
<http://todd.dailey.info/archives/2005/09/27/restore-your-ipod-nano-
to-new-condition-with-a-4-can-of-brasso/>
**Retrospect 6.1 Gains Full Tiger Compatibility** -- Although
Retrospect 6.0 has worked fine with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger in
general, it doesn't support two of Tiger's new features: access
control lists (ACLs) that enable administrators to control who
can access and modify files stored on a Mac OS X 10.4 server and
extended attributes that will be used by future Mac applications.
EMC Dantz has now released Retrospect 6.1 to add support ACLs and
extended attributes. Needless to say, most people didn't even
notice this omission in Retrospect 6.0, but it's nice to see the
update anyway. A similar update for Retrospect Express 6.1 will
be available in the future (Retrospect Express users running
Tiger should be sure to update to Retrospect Express 6.0.212).
The Retrospect 6.1 update is free for Retrospect 6.0 owners;
it's a 24 MB download. [ACE]
<http://www.dantz.com/updates>
<http://kb.dantz.com/display/2n/articleDirect/index.asp?aid=7971&r=0.7230188>
**DealBITS Drawing: Dejal Simon Winners** -- Congratulations to
Khoi Vinh of subtraction.com, Erik Lofgren of bucknell.edu, and
Tim Maecken of cken.org, whose entries were chosen randomly from
199 valid entries in last week's DealBITS drawing and who each
received a copy of Simon Standard, worth $59.95. Even if you
weren't among our winners, you can still save $10 to $50 on Simon
through 12-Oct-05 by using the second link below. Specifically,
Simon Standard is $49.95 (save $10), Simon Enterprise (unlimited
tests) is $145 (save $50), and an upgrade license from Simon 1
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<http://www.dejal.com/simon/?ref=tb>
<http://www.dejal.com/store/?prod=simon&special=tb5y9m764h3e&ref=tb>
<http://www.tidbits.com/dealbits/dejal-simon/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08260>
DealBITS Drawing: A Stuffed Dog and Fetch 5.0
---------------------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
There aren't many Mac programs that come with their own mascot,
but the FTP/SFTP program Fetch has long stood out. It was one
of the first graphical FTP programs on any platform, written in
1989 by Jim Matthews while working at Dartmouth College. Then,
in 2000, Jim used some of his winnings from the Who Wants to
Be a Millionaire television program to buy Fetch from Dartmouth,
after which he resumed work on the program, porting it to
Mac OS X, revamping the interface, and adding support for SFTP.
The result is Fetch 5.0, a spare, elegant file transfer program,
that's perfect for Web publishing, uploading and downloading from
Internet FTP sites, sending files to service bureaus, and even
just transferring files around your network.
<http://www.fetchsoftworks.com/>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08116>
In this week's DealBITS drawing, you can enter to win Fetch's
mascot, a plush stuffed dog carefully trained to sleep on the
top of your monitor, along with a license for Fetch 5.0, worth
$25. Entrants who aren't our lucky winner will receive a notable
discount on Fetch, so if you're looking to pick up a copy of Fetch
inexpensively, be sure to enter at the DealBITS page linked below.
All information gathered is covered by our comprehensive privacy
policy. Be careful with your spam filters, since you must be able
to receive email from my address to learn if you've won. Remember
too, that if someone you refer to this drawing wins, you'll
receive the same prize to reward you for spreading the word.
<http://www.tidbits.com/dealbits/fetch/>
<http://fetchsoftworks.com/plushtoy.jpg>
<http://www.tidbits.com/about/privacy.html>
Windows Treo Questions Palm OS Future
-------------------------------------
by Jeff Carlson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
On 26-Sep-05, the heads of Palm, Microsoft, and Verizon
Wireless held a joint press conference to announce a new Palm
Treo smartphone running Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0, not the
Palm OS. Although rumors had pegged such a device for months
(you can see pictures of one at Engadget, which also had video
in early August of what appears to be a developmental model),
the announcement still came as a bit of a shock to people who
have always associated Palm the company (in its many iterations)
with the Palm operating system.
<http://www.palm.com/us/company/pr/news_feed_story.epl?reqid=760974>
<http://www.palm.com/us/company/?creativeID=RFB|windows_20050927>
<http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000867059961/>
Despite the press event, the Windows Treo is not yet a shipping
product, and doesn't even have a model number. It will be
available in early 2006, and will at first be exclusive to
the Verizon Wireless network.
Why go with Windows Mobile when Palm has invested so heavily in
the Palm OS? Or, as a friend of mine commented, "That just seems
like the worst business plan ever. If you have Palm in your name,
you should still be committed to the OS." If you've watched Palm
over the years, however, you know it's not so simple. If you
haven't, well, it can be outright confusing. But despite the
apparent oddity of a Windows-based, Palm-branded handheld, it
just may be the thing to ensure that Palm, Inc. stays in business.
**A Gnarled Family Tree** -- The last time I wrote about Palm for
TidBITS (see "PalmSource to Drop Mac Support in Palm OS Cobalt" in
TidBITS-717_), Palm, Inc. had spun off its Palm OS division into a
subsidiary called PalmSource. Up to that point, Palm had become
the dominant handheld vendor, but didn't do much to innovate in
its space, leaving the door open to rivals such as Microsoft to
build Windows CE (also called PocketPC and now Windows Mobile) and
Research in Motion (RIM) to succeed with its Blackberry handhelds.
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=07543>
<http://www.blackberry.com/na/index.shtml>
Realizing that it needed some sort of smartphone product, Palm
purchased rival Handspring - which was originally formed by
the founders of Palm who had bailed to forge their own handheld
path - to acquire Handspring's promising Treo line of smartphones.
Together, Palm and Handspring became palmOne (with annoying
capitalization). Palm was going to design the hardware, while
PalmSource tried the Microsoft route of licensing its operating
system back to palmOne and to other vendors such as Sony.
<http://www.palmsource.com/>
Unfortunately, things went south from there, especially for
PalmSource. Sony abandoned the market entirely, leaving palmOne
the only large Palm OS licensee. Worse, the highly touted Palm OS
6, also known as Palm OS Cobalt, was largely ignored by palmOne.
Although Cobalt was designed specifically with mobile handhelds
in mind, palmOne had successfully adapted Palm OS 5 (also called
Garnet) to perform those functions in its Treo line. To date,
nearly two years after PalmSource was spun off, Cobalt hasn't
appeared on any handhelds (though Oswin Technology demonstrated
a Cobalt smartphone at the last PalmSource DevCon in May).
<http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=7874>
<http://www.oswintech.com/>
In July 2005, palmOne tossed $30 million to PalmSource to acquire
full rights to the Palm name, and renamed itself the appropriately
capitalized Palm, Inc. PalmSource, meanwhile, shifted its
development efforts and is now working on building Cobalt to
run on top of Linux. In September, PalmSource announced that
it is being acquired by Tokyo-based Access Co., Ltd. for $324.3
million in cash.
<http://www.palm.com/us/company/pr/news_feed_story.epl?reqid=712951>
<http://www.palmsource.com/opensource/>
<http://www.palmsource.com/press/2005/090905_access.html>
Looking at where the players have ended up so far, I can't
help but draw comparisons to Apple and the Macintosh: as young
companies, Apple and Palm dominated their fields, grew complacent,
and were slowly but surely pushed to the edge of the market -
by Microsoft. Unlike a lot of people, I've never believed that
if Apple had licensed the Mac OS, they'd now own the personal
computer market; that approach has really worked only once...
with Microsoft. (The jury is still out on Linux, but that's
a slightly different case: Linux is a grass-roots operating
system that has made enormous strides in certain highly technical
markets, where the driving force is not market domination on the
road to riches, but market domination on the road to weakening
Microsoft.)
Perhaps if PalmSource had been able to convince Palm to start
using Cobalt, they would have fared better. But from the outside,
it looks as if they spent two years tinkering instead of selling
Cobalt to device makers. "Real artists ship," as Steve Jobs is
famously quoted.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs>
**Enter Microsoft** -- While Palm has been flailing about like
a kid who's just eaten all of his Halloween candy, Microsoft
has been relatively slow and steady in its Windows Mobile
development. The last version I really got my hands on was in
2001 when I reviewed an HP iPaq for HOW Magazine, which, while
an improvement over previous versions, still felt counter-
intuitive and awkward. Windows Mobile 5.0, which powers the
upcoming Treo, seems more usable.
<http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/5/>
And one of the things that Windows Mobile offers that the
Palm OS has had trouble with is remote integration with
Microsoft Exchange. Companies invested in Exchange Server want
their employees to be able to interact directly on smartphones,
which the new Treo is capable of providing. The new device
doesn't possess the capability to receive email messages pushed
to it - the feature that has made RIM's Blackberry handhelds
so popular - but it will be available in the future.
One upside, at least from what I could tell by watching portions
of the streamed Palm/Microsoft/Verizon press conference, is that
Palm has applied their expertise in phone software to the new
Treo. Aside from the advantage of having a phone and organizer
combined into one device, the main advantage of the Treo has been
its superior software. For example, Palm demonstrated how the new
Treo can decline an incoming call by sending a quick text message
to the person who's calling, rather than send them to voicemail
or ignoring the call.
Another big advantage to the Windows Treo is the capability to use
Verizon Wireless's BroadbandAccess service on its EV-DO network,
which offers download speeds averaging 400 to 700 Kbps, according
to the companies' press release. The current Treos don't appear
to be able to support EV-DO yet.
**Palm Support on the Mac** -- As usual, native Mac support is
either nonexistent or unclear; we'll know more when the device
is actually released. However, I have to commend Mac developer
Mark/Space for their positioning: they currently offer The Missing
Sync for Windows Mobile 2.0 for existing Windows Mobile devices
(though Windows Mobile 5.0 is not yet supported).
<http://www.markspace.com/missingsync_windowsmobile.php>
It's possible that Palm may update Palm Desktop to provide
compatibility with the new device, but I'm not holding my breath.
The company only recently (in the last few months) fixed a
problem I wrote about in August 2004 (see "Escaping Palm HotSync
Installation Hell" in TidBITS-744_). The installer would run
into a permissions problem that was infuriating to work around.
Palm Desktop 4.2.1 Rev D finally fixes the problem. (Technically,
Rev C fixed it, but then was unavailable for a short time until
Rev D appeared. If you downloaded and installed Palm Desktop 4.2.1
Rev C and HotSync works fine, you don't need to update to Rev D;
the installer is a 17.1 MB download.)
<http://www.palm.com/us/support/macintosh/macdesk421revd.html>
Note that when I was helping a friend install Palm Desktop 4.2.1
Rev C on his PowerBook, I needed to eradicate every trace of
Palm Desktop and HotSync to get the installer to work correctly.
Simply trashing the application folder, as Palm recommends,
didn't do the job; we had to find and delete all Palm and HotSync
preferences and related files (such as synchronization conduits)
before installing.
**The Future of the Palm OS** -- I'm not quite ready to claim
that the Palm OS is dead: Palm, Inc. continues to sell plenty of
organizers and Treos (470,000 Treos were sold in the most recent
financial quarter), and Palm CEO Ed Colligan stated at the Windows
Treo press conference that the company would continue to sell Palm
OS Treos. It also has four years of Palm OS licensing paid for
as part of the Palm, Inc. branding deal with PalmSource.
<http://www.palm.com/us/company/pr/news_feed_story.epl?reqid=760060>
And yet, with PalmSource sold off and Microsoft stepping in,
I can't help but think that the Palm OS needs to start showing
something spectacular in the future to avoid the fate of other
up-and-coming operating systems. Look at what happened to the
BeOS: it was bought by PalmSource and never heard from again.
Apple Cracks Down on Google AdWords
-----------------------------------
by Adam C. Engst <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
If you make a Mac-related product, or provide a Mac-related
service like consulting, you're probably using some of Apple's
trademarks like "Mac" and "Macintosh" in your advertising.
Chances are you've never thought twice about doing that, since,
after all, you're contributing to the vibrant economy that helps
the Macintosh continue to be profitable for Apple - without
software from independent developers and without Mac consultants,
the Mac would quickly wither away.
And yet, some recent unsettling events indicate that Apple may in
fact be moving in the direction of preventing third-parties from
using Apple trademarks in advertising. Last week, I received a
confusing email message from Google AdWords Support, telling me
that they had "disapproved" several of the ads I placed for "Take
Control of Mac OS X Backups" because the ads used the trademarked
term "Mac" in their text (there was no complaint about the fact
that I was using "Mac" as one of the keywords that triggered my
ads). Google's message gave no further details about why these
ads, which had been running for many months, were suddenly in
violation of Apple's trademark (presumably - the message didn't
identify the trademark owner). It did point to Google's page on
Trademark Complaint Procedures, which didn't tell me, as the
person supposedly violating a trademark, anything useful.
<http://www.google.com/tm_complaint_adwords.html>
Initially, I presumed it was all just a silly mistake, since it's
utterly inane that Apple would restrict the use of its trademarks
in advertising for Macintosh-related products. Apple has fairly
explicit guidelines for the use of Apple trademarks and copyright,
and they say in part:
"Developers may use Apple, Macintosh, iMac, or any other Apple
word mark (but not the Apple Logo or other Apple-owned graphic
symbol/logo) in a referential phrase on packaging or promotional/
advertising materials to describe that the third party product
is compatible with the referenced Apple product or technology,
provided they comply with the following requirements..."
<http://www.apple.com/legal/trademark/guidelinesfor3rdparties.html>
But then I learned from a number of other well-known Macintosh
developers and consultants, including Bare Bones Software
and Fetch Softworks, that their Google AdWords ads had been
disapproved as well. The ban wasn't universal, though, and a
Google search on "Apple Mac" still reveals numerous ads that
use "Mac" in their text. Clearly, the plot was thickening.
<http://www.google.com/search?q=Apple+Mac>
Next, I queried Google AdWords Support in an attempt to discover
why only some ads had been singled out, and on what basis they
were disapproved, given Apple's highly public guidelines for
trademark use. To their credit, Google AdWords Support responded
fairly quickly, though with utterly generic and unhelpful text.
The message again referred only to "the trademark owner of 'Mac,'"
rather than identifying Apple in any way, and said that "The
trademark owner of 'Mac' notified us that your AdWords ads were
running with the trademarked term without the trademark owner's
permission or other legal authority for doing so." It went on to
tell me that if I believed I should be able to use the term "Mac"
in an ad, that I should resolve that with the trademark owner.
Annoyed by such mealy mouthed responses from Google, a company
I thought better of, I made my requests even more specific, asking
for confirmation that Apple Computer had explicitly requested that
my particular ads be disapproved because they included the word
"Mac." It seemed reasonable that if such a complaint was in fact
being made about my ads, that I be given the chance to see it,
especially in light of Apple's trademark guidelines, which seemed
to give all the permission that was needed. I also asked again
why only some ads had been disapproved. The response was again
quick, and only moderately more informational, if not actually
helpful. Google refused to provide me with a copy of Apple's
request (this was the first time that they had acknowledged
that Apple was the trademark owner), and ignored my other
questions. The note did, for the first time, give actual
instructions for how someone using a trademarked term in a
disapproved ad could have it approved again: it involved Apple
faxing a signed letter on company letterhead to Google with an
explicit statement authorizing the use of the trademarked term,
along with my Google login email address or customer ID.
In an effort to learn Google's official line, I talked with Google
PR, through whom Rose Hagan, senior trademark counsel at Google,
told me, "It's our policy to not disclose information on specific
actions we have taken regarding our trademark policy in order to
protect our advertisers' confidential information. However, we
can confirm that we have received a complaint under our trademark
complaint procedure from Apple regarding ads targeting the EU.
Our longstanding policy outside of the United States and Canada
is that we do not allow the use of trademarks as keywords if
the trademark owner objects."
Hagan also said, "Google AdWords uses the targeting criteria
of the campaign to determine whether or not to show ads with
trademarked terms as keywords or in the ad text. Depending on
where the ad is targeted, will determine what trademark policy
applies." But when I created and submitted a new ad that used the
word "Mac," it was rejected instantly as containing a trademark,
even though the campaign was limited to the U.S. When I requested
an exception based on the geographic distribution, Google allowed
it through.
What if you want to use Google AdWords to market your Mac-related
product or service in the EU? Good luck, since your only hope
is to get that permission slip from Apple Legal sent to Google,
and at the moment, there's no indication that Apple is willing
to issue such permission slips to everyone who might want one.
Although they ignored my request for additional information,
you can attempt to contact Apple's Trademark Department at
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. Unfortunately, I was unable to learn why
EU trademark law is sufficiently different from U.S. trademark
law to enable these restrictions.
In case you were wondering, the Apple trademarks at issue here
are apparently: Apple, iPod, Shuffle, Mac, Mac Mini, iMac, iBook,
PowerBook, Power Mac, iTunes, and iTMS. That's by no means a full
list of Apple trademarks, which has some truly amusing entries,
such as AirMac, Encyclomedia, HotSauce, Moof (and the associated
dogcow logo), PowerLunch, SourceBug, and, get this, Yum.
<http://www.apple.com/legal/trademark/appletmlist.html>
Of course, it's possible that Google disapproved other ads that
included words like "apple" and "shuffle" because of this, but
since Apple's trademarks are topic-specific, you can in theory
still advertise an apple peeler or a book about card shuffling
tricks. In such situations, I certainly hope that exception
requests would be honored instantly.
Now, I hope it's clear that I don't think Google is primarily to
blame for this snafu. I think Google AdWords Support handled it
poorly at the beginning, but Google PR eventually came through
with an official line that contained the necessary clue on how
to work around the problem for anyone who doesn't want to market
to the EU via Google AdWords.
Apple is another story. Although I've learned from sources that
Apple Developer Relations is aware of the issue and has suggested
the same workaround as Google's trademark counsel (limiting
geographic distribution), Apple PR failed to get back to me with
an official statement explaining the situation. In the absence
of such a statement, all I can do is speculate as to Apple's
motivations and goals, and in this case, that's more difficult
than normal. Usually, when Apple makes an unpopular move, it's
relatively easy to see how the company stands to benefit, even
if there's a trade-off in bad publicity. That's certainly been
the case when Apple pulled out of Macworld Boston, when it sued
Think Secret, and when it attempted to subpoena records from
online journalists relating to leaked information regarding a
FireWire audio interface for GarageBand. In those situations,
Apple was attempting to keep control over its product release
schedule, how it spent marketing money to attract new customers,
and its trade secrets.
Control is likely the issue here as well. Apple's trademark use
guidelines are quite explicit, but it's likely that most people
aren't aware of them at all, so this sort of a request could be
a shotgun approach to clearing out people who are misusing Apple's
trademarks in Google AdWords ads, at least in the EU. If so, it
would seem to be a highly misguided approach, since it will harm
every legitimate Macintosh or iPod developer, consultant, or
reseller that relies on Google AdWords as a way of reaching EU
customers. Sure, it's not absolutely essential to include Apple's
trademarked terms in ad text, since the ads will still show if the
appropriate keywords are entered during a search. But at the same
time, for ads relating to Macintosh or iPod products or services
to be effective, it's a bit of a stretch to come up with wording
within Google's tight character count limits that's clearly
descriptive. Heck, it can be hard enough even when you can
use trademarked terms.
Could this be a trial balloon to prevent Apple's trademarks from
being used in any sort of third-party advertising or marketing
materials? It seems highly unlikely, but even restricting the
use of Apple trademarks in the EU seemed ridiculous. And again,
apart from a sense of control, it's unclear why Apple would even
conceive of doing this. Without successful software and other
products and services from people outside Apple, the Macintosh
would wither quickly, and although the iPod isn't nearly as
reliant on all the cases and accessories that have appeared,
it too would suffer. It's difficult enough to attract new
customers in the limited Macintosh market as it is, and I can't
see how making it even harder helps anyone.
In the end, I'm going to err on the side of stupidity rather
than spite, and guess that some eager legal beaver at Apple saw
an egregious misuse of an Apple trademark within an ad at Google
and decided to shut it down via a cease-and-desist letter that was
far broader than it should have been, or was interpreted that way
by Google's lawyers. It's especially a crying shame that Apple had
to go off half-cocked like this, with neither Apple PR nor Apple
Developer Relations knowing what was happening initially, since
the AdWords disapprovals caused much unnecessary gnashing of teeth
and tearing of hair in the Macintosh developer community. Even
assuming that the decision had some rationale behind it, Apple
should have anticipated the furor and put a process in place to
deal with it ahead of time, rather than wait for Mac developers
and the press to squawk. Now we just have to wait and see how
Apple cleans up this entirely avoidable mess.
Hot Topics in TidBITS Talk/03-Oct-05
------------------------------------
by TidBITS Staff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The first link for each thread description points to the
traditional TidBITS Talk interface; the second link points to
the same discussion on our Web Crossing server, which provides
a different look and which may be faster.
**XPostFacto 4 experiences** -- A reader looks for real-world
experience with the software for installing Mac OS X on
unsupported systems. (2 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2721>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/570/>
**File copy program** -- Readers discuss various
backup/synchronization tools, from those built into Mac OS X's
Unix underpinnings to commercial products. (12 message)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2722>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/571/>
**Movies, advertising & product placements** -- When you see a
Mac in a movie or advertisement, did Apple pay for it? And how
prevalent is product placement these days? (The ice industry
must have scored well with March of the Penguins!) (7 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2724>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/573/>
**Issues with .Mac groups** -- A reader points out discrepancies
among which users can access .Mac groups, leading to confusion.
(1 message)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2725>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/574/>
**An *EASY* "alarm clock" program?** With oodles of processing
power and the latest electronics, is it really so hard to use
an iBook as a simple alarm clock? A number of possibilities
are available. (5 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2726>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/575/>
**Search for the ultimate keyboard** -- Readers weigh in with
their recommendations. (13 messages)
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tlkthrd=2727>
<http://emperor.tidbits.com/TidBITS/Talk/576/>
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