Stan's List

“>Macworld UK reports that Apple has introduced three new ‘Get A Mac’ ads in the US, all of which are available to view online. (Two new ads) look at the dangers of spyware on windows systems, and the sheer confusion and frustration Windows users must grapple with when they try to create a photo book using that platform.” The new ads.

It has been a while since our last look at OpenOffice. X11 has not been updated, and there apparently no request that there need be. According to Technovia, OpenOffice that has been improved. OpenOffice has always been a full featured office suite. I wonder if the author would be more pleased with iWorks if there was a spreadsheet program?

Jeff Carlson, in the Seattle Times, gives the best reasons to buy a MacBook for your student. Best reason of all? The school requires that you run Windoze. How ironic. More …

Apple has published a revised, corrected list of affected PowerBook G4 12.1″ batteries on its website.

The correct battery serial number range is as follows:

ZZ411 - ZZ427
3K428 - 3K611

Originally, Apple published incorrect numbers (6C510 - 6C626). The website now contains the accurate serial number ranges.

The website form asks users to enter their battery serial number. The site checks whether it is one of the affected units.

In addition, PowerBook users should note that no 17″ PowerBooks’ batteries are affected by the recall.

Apple’s Web page states:

“If you participated in a previous battery recall for any of these computer models or recently purchased or received from Apple an extra battery for an iBook G3, please check your battery serial number in case you received a replacement battery that is affected by this program.”

So if you own an iBook G3, check to see whether or not your battery model and serial number fall into one of the given ranges.

Today Apple and the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall of certain lithium ion batteries made for 12″ and 15″ PowerBook G4s and iBook G4s. Here is Apple’s Web page on the recall and CPSC’s notice. The recall covers batteries made by Sony similar to those recalled by Dell. The total number of batteries in the U.S. is 1.1 million and there are some 700,000 more outside the U.S. for a total of about 1.8 million batteries.

Check Apple’s Web page or the CPSC notice to determine if the battery is involved in the recall and, if so, to stop using it until it can be replaced by Apple.

AppleInsider: Apple Computer is once again facing a problem that it has become all too familiar with — not enough supply of its most popular products to meet growing demand.

AppleInsider: Leading notebook makers Apple, Dell, and Lenovo will hold a summit meeting in San Jose, Calif. next month to begin development of standards for the manufacture of lithium ion batteries for portable and handheld electronics.

Writing for InfoWorld, Tom Yager says it took an attack on a Windows production server, not devotion to Apple, to put that provocative title on this article. “I’ve been giving it great deal of thought, and I came up with a reasons pointing to the likelihood that Windows is at greater risk of catastrophic attacks. It’s not easy reading, but it was either this dense packing or a book-length blog post: All Windows background processes/daemons are spawned from a single hyper-privileged process and referred to as services; By default, Windows launches all services with SYSTEM-level privileges [...]” More …

Apple and Creative have announced a broad settlement ending all legal disputes between the two companies. Apple will pay Creative $100 million for a paid-up license to use Creative’s recently awarded patent in all Apple products.

“Creative is very fortunate to have been granted this early patent,” said Steve Jobs. “This settlement resolves all of our differences with Creative, including the five lawsuits currently pending between the companies, and removes the uncertainty and distraction of prolonged litigation.”

The companies announced that Creative has joined Apple’s Made for iPod program and will be announcing their own iPod accessory products later this year.

Lastly, Apple can recoup a portion of its payment if Creative is successful in licensing this patent to others.