Sunday March 23, 2008

- Apple avoids Class Action over dithering - Anthony - 12:24:36

Source: Chicago Tribune

According to Apple, all Macs are capable of displaying millions of colours. However, notebook and iMac have panels which can only show 262000. In order to achieve the appearance of millions of colours, Apple uses dithering, which mixes several colors to give the illusion of more.
The vast majority of the public will not see the difference, unless they go specifically out of their way to see the shortcomings of dithering.
Last May, two photographers attempted to launch a class action claiming the specifications of the machines in question were false. They decided to withdraw their complaint because it has not garnered enough suitors, but perhaps an amicable settlement with Apple helped.
We know nothing about this agreement, and especially the amount obtained by photographers, but it has certainly not been enormous, given that the outcome of the suit was still uncertain and more in favour of Apple.
However, it would be desirable that in the future, for the sake of clarity Apple shows the actual specifications of its panels. This would avoid bad surprises, for example, for customers who bought an Aluminium 20" iMac 20 and found out later that the quality of its panel is lower than that of previous (white) models.
But as defenders say Apple could not be asked for price cuts at the entry level while mainitaining exceptional quality at the same time.

[translation by jeremy]

- Problems with 'downloading' Safari on the PC - Lionel - 09:34:47

A controversy is currently gaining ground about how Apple is trying to impose Safari on the PC. Indeed, rather than just downloading it, Apple has decided to use the system which updates iTunes and Quicktime with Windows for downloading Safari.
This is probably the first time that Apple is using iTunes-iPod so openly to try to impose another of their products, and as one might expect, it leaves a bad taste. Critics are vocal, especially those directly affected such as John Lilly CEO of the Mozilla Foundation, which offers Firefox.
Hard to tell whether this plan will make a lot of noise, but it operates in a global context, which could erode the image of cool that Apple surfs on. This is even truer since another controversy has begun to manifest itself once again concerning the iPhone SDK. Apple reportedly blocked any possibility of accessing music from the device. This complicates the lives of developers who wanted to benefit from the latter to put the music in their software, but more importantly it blocks the possibility of developing an alternative player, and any system of selling other than the iTunes Music Store.
Already some believe that this limitation could be exploited by competitors like Amazon, who would be delighted to win a trial in abuse of a dominant position of Apple and then offer access to their own online shop selling for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It is now quite possible having abandoned DRM. Apple can no longer hide behind its desire to dismiss FairPlay.
It is clear the situation is delicate: before now Apple used its own success to build more, but now it findsitself in an untenable situation that may damage its reputation.

[translation by jeremy]

- Mobile telephones OK on Emirates airline - Lionel - 09:02:14

Source: Generation NT

The airline Emirates announced that it will now be possible to make phone calls (and send SMS's) from your mobile on its planes equipped with a special relay station.
This relay station developed by AeroMobile will be activated during phases of theflight and allow any passenger to make calls and have access to account data.
The crew, however, will keep control of the system and can disable it during night flights, for example.
It is still unclear what price will be charged for communications, but it may be expensive since the calls pass through a communications satellite before reaching the ground.

[translation by jeremy]