News for Monday, 15 March 2004

We hadn't been announcing a new OS X beta for quite long...
Apple sent the developers a Build 7F43.
They'll also provide a 1.4.2 Update 1 DP1 version for Java.

Thx to Bertrand.
Tomorrow, the European Commission will ask 15 national national advisers if, in their view, Microsoft broke the antitrust legislation. The final decision will be made public on March 24th. If no compromise is to be found with Microsoft until that day, they may have to pay a fine as high as 10% of their turnover. One may wonder then if they'd prefer to open the door to competitors, or lose some part of their colossal profits.

The whole thing started in 2000 when AOL sold unlimlited RTC offers. They then quickly bridled them by using timers and other devices.
Sued by the UFC Que Choisir consumer association, they now definitely lost, as their appeal was rejected.
They've been condemned to paying 2,500 Euros to UFC. They'll also have to pay a 1,500 Euros fine for deceiving advertising. This does cost much more than money [Thx JAY].

According to testimonies we've received, it would mail .mac servers really expereienced a breakdown on Saturday. This probably happened during the day in Québec and during the night here in France.
Here's a thread on the issue on Apple forums : http://discussions.info.apple.com/
Thanks to the hundred of people who sent their word about that from Québec. If announcers there would like to talk to us of any partnership, we would be glad to answer.
[Upd.] The problem has been happening again casually since yesterday.

You were numerous to ask us the reasons behind Apple’s stock climbing, which is now near $28.
We tried and get some information on this question, and here’s what we found.
It seems it all started with a rumor [how strange…]. It is said in certain circles that SONY wishes to merge with or buy out Apple Computers. Note that this has been a recurrent rumor for several years [as well as IBM and tons of big names supposedly buying Apple].
We dug deeper and what follows is gossip about rumors… but it’s interesting nonetheless so we’ll tell it.
It is said [now we sound like a fairy tale] that SONY would have contacted Apple to propose a merger between both companies digital music divisions. Looks like SONY, which is quite lagging behind on the MP3 players’ scene, would love to sell iPods too…
Still according to that rumor, it is said that Apple is not exactly delighted with this idea, especially since they are in a dominant position.
To wrap up, SONY probably has the financial power to take over Apple. But the Cupertino Company has carefully kept a $4 billion treasure in cash. In case someone launches a takeover offer, they can always buy back a part of their shares to counter the hostile bid.

One of MacNN forum's member has crammed his G5 full of neons...


Some will like it, some wont... Just note that adding flame cut-outs plates in front of the fans won't help cooling the machine. We strongly advice not to try and tinker with the airflow...