Granted, I’m quite surprised that Psystar was able to come up with this: a real law firm to fight the case versus Apple. The Miami-based company has hired Carr & Ferrell LLP. A filing on monday asked for an extension of the deadline until August 18th to reply to the lawsuit. (more…)

Apple suit: Psystar’s Mac clones must be recalled

Apple’s list of grievances against Mac clone maker Psystar spans 16 pages, but, in the end, its argument boils down to the one expected. Psystar, Apple says, had no right to do what it did, and should be stopped and forced to pay.

In its lawsuit, a copy of which was seen by CNET News courtesy of our colleagues at ZDNet, Apple alleges copyright infringement, inducement of copyright infringement, trademark infringement, as well as a couple of other legal claims. It seeks any profits earned by Psystar from its Open Computer, triple damages for willful acts, a permanent injunction against the sale of the product, as well as recall of those units already sold.

Who saw that one coming? It took Apple how long exactly until they got this on its way? They really must have had too much to do with the iPhone, MobileMe, etc. A sign of negligence for one of Apple’s roots, aka OS X?
(more…)

Welcome to yet another installment of the random headlines.

Pay, Your Own Way: Firm Lets Workers Pick Salary
I was expecting a “but if you really get what you want is another question”. Granted it’s not completely up to you to choose your salary.

Will FriendFeed Be “The Daily Me” Newspaper for the Next Gen?
Why just for the “Next Gen”?

One month before the Olympics, the dirtiest air in China is in Beijing
Well, who would have thought?

Microsoft to Respond to Apple’s ‘Get a Mac’ Ads
Respond? With what? An own campaign that a. nobody cares about, b. ends up with a new product that nobody cares about, c. nobody gets, or d. all of the above? But hey, they got the money, so let’s roll!

Apple: iPhone 3G purchase to take 10-15 minutes
Hope you aren’t the last in line. Also make sure bring the following things when you want to get an iPhone:

- Credit card
- Social security number
- Valid, government-issued photo ID
- Your current wireless account number and password or PIN (if you’re new to AT&T)

At least you don’t need to bring your birth-certificate and one of your parents.

Yep, Merriam-Webster announced the new words that are included in the latest Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. The new words include webinar, malware, netroots, pretexting and fanboy.

Webinar? That’s so 1998. Netroots? What the heck are netroots? I guess I have to look it up in the dictionary. Pretexting? Thanks to Hewlett-Packard for refreshing my memories. Fanboy? A kind hello to various online forums out there. Malware? Did I get you?

What I’m wondering about is the inclusion of words like Prosecco, Kiteboarding or Pescatarian. They really weren’t in there before? SFGate has a list of more words you might or might not have heard before.

The short version:
This had to happen and thank god it did!

The long version:
When I (and several other people) had the chance to review the first gen Drobo we all came to the conclusion that USB on a device like the Drobo was just a bad idea since USB is too slow for this. The people at Drobo just said that they are listening to the customers (and reviewers). Today they kept their promise and released the second gen Drobo with Firewire 800.
(more…)

Yet another good one from the BBC:

Google’s plans to launch a mapping tool in the UK could be referred to the Information Commissioner.

Street View matches photos of locations to maps, including passers-by who were captured as the photograph was taken.

Privacy International, a UK rights group, believes the technology breaks data protection laws.

Okay, hmm, the UK… Wasn’t that the country with CCTV cameras at every corner? Yeah, I guess that’s it. Maybe the UK government wants to start its own “street view” service. Live, 24/7 and even more invasive than Google Street View. Can I throw in a name for it? How about “terrorist prohibition view” or short “TPV, brought to you by your government”.

Just as a reminder, here’s the radio ad of the Counter-Terrorism advertising campaign:

Great job guys. Spread the FUD.

What’s the most relaxing way from Oregon to Idaho? Of course, in a lawn chair surrounded by lots of balloons. Kent Couch - no, I’m not going to make a joke about lawn chair and Couch - sat down and lifted off.

From the BBC:

“I’d go to 30,000 feet if I didn’t shoot a balloon down periodically,” he said.

In addition to the blow pipe and air gun he took a pole to pull in balloons, a parachute, some GPS equipment and some eggs and chocolate.

Using a BB gun to control your altitude? Sounds like a great way to achieve a Darwin Award!

Video of him after the jump.
(more…)

You can’t make this stuff up:

Man rips head from Hitler wax figure

BERLIN (Reuters) - A man tore the head from a controversial waxwork figure of Adolf Hitler on the opening day of Berlin’s Madame Tussauds museum on Saturday, police said.

Just minutes after the museum opened, the 41-year-old German man pushed aside two security men guarding the exhibit.

“Then he went over to the figure and ripped off the head,” a police spokesman said.

Some might say it just was a matter time, in this case it was mere minutes.

Yahoo and Microsoft making the rounds with old lovers?

Microsoft now wants to get some friends to seal the deal? Time Warner und News Corp. Awesome! How many news do we have to read until it finally stops?

For Bill Gates, the next phase begins

Yet another recent big bruhaha by Microsoft. After hundreds of redundant news about Gates leaving Microsoft we have now reached the time for hundreds of redundant news about Microsoft without Gates - even though he isn’t really away away. I just don’t care about the Windows XP EOL news anymore.

A little history lesson about Microsoft, Bill Gates and his airport races can be heard on Windows Weekly Episode #65.

Sony: Firmware v2.40 status

This really didn’t work out as planned. First they come up with the big news about how great this update will be and now they had to take 2.40 down. “A limited number of calls from consumers experiencing an issue with installing the system software update on their PS3″ leaves some room for speculation as usual. How many is a limited number? 10, 100, 1.000 or maybe more?

Mozilla Sets New Guinness World Record with Firefox 3 Downloads

Don’t get me wrong, I really like Firefox. Especially version 3 added some great feature and also works quite a bit faster than before. But I guess 8.002.530 downloads in 24 hours won’t hold up too long. Let’s wait for Microsoft’s numbers for a usual patch tuesday.

Apple iPhone 3G

Oh well, one more week to go. I’m interested to see if there’ll be lines at Germany’s T-Mobile stores like last year. I was surprised that Germans would really stand in the rain at midnight on a cold november night, all that just for a new mobile phone.