google

Have You Tried Google Labs

Posted by KL Tech Muse at 4:33 AM on March 8, 2010

I have to admit I like to try new things and am willing to take the risk that it entails. Which is why I love Google Labs. The lab contains experiments that Google believe have potential, but are not ready to release to the general public yet. If you decide to use a lab product, you need to be aware that it is just that an experiment. It may not work perfectly and it can be pulled at anytime, without notification. How long somethings stays in the lab, varies by product, some products spend years in the lab, while others either die or are released quickly. Google Reader and iGoogle are just two of many graduates of Google Labs. There are some Google products that have their own labs, such as Google mail and Google calendar. There are a couple of ways to get to Google Lab, the first is if you are in a Google product, you will find it under the more label, when you click on even more. The direct url for Google labs is www.googlelabs.com.

One of the lab products that I have been using lately is called Google Squared, this is a great tool if you want to organize a category. For example I love to try different cheeses, from around the world. Right now I am trying various blue cheeses, too keep track of what I have and have not tried I used Google Squared to create this chart. Obviously this is just an example, you can create a chart about any category. This one of dozen of lab products you can try from the Google Lab. With the advent of the Google android platform there are some lab products that are specific to that platform. Also there are a few lab products that are OS specific, so before you try to use a lab product make sure its available for the browser and os you use.

The one complaint I have about Google labs is that sometimes the products stay in the lab so long, you forget that they can be pulled at anytime. The product become a part of people’s work flow and when they do get pulled, it can cause quite an uproar. It is important to remember that a lab product can be pulled at anytime, never make a lab product a critical part of your work flow. If it is part of your work flow, have something to replace it or be able to do the work flow without it. Do you use Google Labs, if so what your favorite product?

Tags: google

Posted in google, service

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Google Buzz

Posted by KL Tech Muse at 8:21 AM on February 15, 2010

Google buzz screen capture

Google Buzz has been around for a couple of days now, and it clearly has both it supporters and detractors. The biggest complaint that has come up from the beginning is the issue of privacy. When Google Buzz first started all your contacts who were listed in your Google profile became public by default, this was clearly a mistake on Google’s part which they have since fixed. I was watching This Week in Google and several members of the panel had worked on the project. They said it had been used internally for about a year and the privacy problem never came up, it was something that was just missed. This is of course one of the problem with test that are run internally. You can miss problems because internal company cultures are different than the real world. I think that Google responded to the issue well, although clearly they should have seen the problem upfront. They have moved from an auto follow list to a suggested list, this list will come up when you first join Buzz. Once you decide who you want to follow, then you need to decide what sites if any you want to connect to Google Buzz. The sites that are offered are the sites that you have connected to your Google Profile.

Once you have everything set up then the flow of informations comes in. Actually depending on who you follow the flow can become a flood, which is another thing that people don’t like. Fortunately most people who receive a lot of complaints about the influx of their post in to Google Buzz, will adjust the flow by removing the site from their connected sites. Hopefully Google will soon have a way to create groups and better filters. Right now if I don’t want to read someone twitter post, I have to block them entirely, there is no way to block just their twitter post. The third biggest complaint is the fact you can’t collapse comments. This especially becomes a problem when a post has multiple comments, for example the recent TWIG conversation had over 500 comments. Being able to collapse comments is a must addition, that hopefully Google is working on. You actually can collapse comments on the mobile version, so it shouldn’t be that hard to implement. The fourth problem is the lack of documentation on how to do things. Fortunately a lot of how to post and videos are now being written and uploaded, but Google should have written some up front.

Despite these problems I really like Google Buzz, it reminds me a lot of Friendfeed, which I also like. I also like the fact that Google responded to the privacy issue quickly once it was reported. It would have been nice if they had thought of it before hand, but considering the circumstances I thought they handled it well. The detractors need to remember that the product has been out less then a week, a lot of their complaints will probably be answer with updates. I think it has some real potential. Do I think it will be as popular as Twitter, maybe not, but it is a much better place for a conversation.

Tags: google

Posted in Social Media, google

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IDC Predicts Big Change in IT and Telecoms

Posted by Andrew at 4:37 AM on December 8, 2009

The analysts over at IDC reckon that 2010 is going to be a year of “recovery and transformation”. On the recovery side, they’re expecting global IT spending to increase by 3.2%, returning to 2008 levels but a large chunk of this spending is going to occur in the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China.

But more interestingly, the transformation part is going to be increased adoption of cloud services and the arrival of “enterprise-grade cloud services” and complementary application platforms. IDC thinks this will be the most important development for the next 20 years particularly when linked in with the growth in mobile devices.

Regarding mobile, IDC sees these competing with PCs as user’s main devices, with over 1 billion mobile devices, fuelled by increasing adoption of smartphones and Apple’s iPad tablet. They predict over 300,000 iPhone apps and 5x growth in Android apps. Interestingly, they also predict “apps stores” for netbooks, which I think has already been evidenced by moves from Intel.

Other predictions include “socialytic” apps which mashup business apps with social networks, further reductions in CO2 through IT solutions and more mergers, acquisitions and partnerships.

Personally, I think the cloud services linked to mobile devices is right on the money. I’ve recently started using a Palm Pre and it links to several on-line services including Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Evernote. Looking at just Google, there are connections to Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Reader and I’m expecting Tasks, Documents and Notebook to be available before long. So I’m already living in the cloud and I love it.

The whole press release is over at IDC.

Tags: Android, Apple, cloud storage, google, iPhone, Mobile, Palm, Palm Pre, Twitter, Yahoo

Posted in Android, Apple, Operating Systems, Social Media, Twitter, gmail, google, iPhone

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Google to Murdoch: Here’s a Piece of Rope. Have Fun!

Posted by susabelle at 9:13 AM on December 2, 2009

Today, according to the Google Blog, Google is making some changes in the “First Click Free” way they have been indexing pages. Up until now, Google and publishers have worked together to allow Google to spider and index news sites, so that searchers can find it when they want it, but limiting the number of times or pages a searcher may see a particular news site (or link to other pages within the site), instead bringing up a registration/pay wall if the user wants more use. It’s all a bit complicated, but well-explained in the blog. Up until now, click-throughs on links inside news articles would progress normally; now, after five of these click-throughs, the user may encounter a registration or subscription page.

I think this is a really good move on Google’s part. Why? Because they’ve just handed Rupert Murdoch and others enough rope to hang themselves with. What do they think will happen with page rank when searchers can’t click through to articles anymore? The Google spider will stop at all such pages, dump them out of the indexing stream, and move on. This could effectively, and quickly, reduce the amount of news articles available to searchers, or put those news articles so far down the list that no one ever sees them. Google is essentially saying “go ahead, it’s your head on a platter, not ours.” If online news sources were already feeling the pinch of lowered ad revenues, what happens when their page rank drops, and the cost per ad view goes up because of it? Do they think advertisers will stick around for such little return on their investment?

Free news is not the problem. Plenty of news outlets are surviving (and thriving) by offering free news. What Murdoch and company hasn’t figured out is that the business model is changing, and that if they don’t change, they will die. And they will have been the source of their own demise.

Posted in google

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Google Maps Navigation vs. TomTom One

Posted by Mike Dell at 7:27 PM on November 30, 2009

I, like a lot of us, had to travel over the Thanksgiving weekend. In my case, I had to travel to Grand Haven Michigan ( about 150 miles south of where I live ). I just got the Motorola Droid with Google Maps Navigation and wanted to compare it with my 1 year old TomTom One.

First, around town.. The TomTom is quite good at finding businesses and not quite as good at finding addresses. The touch screen is easy to manipulate and it doesn’t take too long to get your address entered into the device. Once you get it in there, it will take you to within a block or so of the correct address. It’s not perfect. The Google Maps app on the droid take a bit longer to load the address into then the TomTom ( you will have to pullover to do it on the fly ) but once it’s in there, the Droid is much more accurate. Both do a great job with businesses and the Droid’s Google Maps app works with voice quite well as long as you don’t have to read the whole address to it. For finding a McDonald’s or Starbucks, it’s perfect.

Now for the long trip… There are 2 ways to go out of Traverse City to get to Grand Haven. The slightly longer but faster route though Grand Rapids on US131 and I-96 or the shorter US31 along the lake shore. Knowing that there is a detour around a bridge in the Cadillac Area, it makes it quicker to go the US31 route. With the TomTom, it has no idea about the bridge being out so it wanted to route us via US131 and Grand Rapids. But, thanks to TomTom’s choice of “fastest route” “shortest route” or “avoid freeways” I was able to select “avoid freeways” and it routed me the way I wanted to go. The Google Maps App is supposed to know when there is detours and not route you through them unless it thinks it is the fastest way to go ( no option for shortest or other routing that I found ). It did show the section of closed road but it routed us on it anyway. So I ignored it. I wanted to see how far along TomTom’s route it took the Droid to catch on that we were not going that way and re-route us. The verdict? 15 miles. We were on the road for at least 15 miles and the Google Maps on the Droid wanted us to turn at ever intersection to get us back to the closed road. Once it got the fact we were going the other way, it was right on with the TomTom.

The TomTom One can be had right now for about $90 if you shop around and it a great all around navigator. It has lots of options of routing, voices and what info it displayed on the screen. You can have the time you will arrive at your end point and your speed, the speed limit of the road you are on among other things like that plus a nice 3D display of the road in front of you (map, not video ) The Google Maps Navigation does not have any real options as far as routing, display info or anything like that. Just a nice map, the street names, and how many hours and minutes to your destination. It does, however have Satellite views of the route and when you get where you are going or come to an intersection, it will show you street view of the area which could be nice if you don’t already know where you are.

One thing the Droid does better with Google Maps over the TomTom is that it reads you the street names. The TomTom one doesn’t (although you can get a model that does) Also, on the droid, you can’t change the voice (yet).

All in all, I would say the Droid with Google Maps Navigation is OK for a navigator if you don’t have a stand alone unit. You will want to get a car charger for it as the battery won’t last but a couple of hours running with the display on all the time. The thing that gets me excited about this App and the Android phone is it will improve over time with updates and other 3rd party software. The TomTom is more or less stuck with what it is. They do update the TomTom from time to time, but it can only do what it can do. You won’t go wrong with a TomTom for the price. I’m happy with both and will use both depending on the situation.

I’m loving all the other things the Droid does and will update you on my switch from Blackberry in future posts.

Posted in Droid, GPS, Technology, application, google

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Google, Google Chrome, and the Cloud

Posted by susabelle at 11:43 AM on November 20, 2009

This past week, I attended and presented at a conference for Adaptive Technologists. This is my official geek-tech title. I work with people, primarily students, with disabilities, providing technical solutions to their accessibility needs. This is the premier conference for geeks like me, and I spend the entire week networking with others who do what I do. Usually our keynote speaker is someone from the disability services community — a counselor at a school, or head of a deaf institute or something along those lines.

This year, we had Dr. T.V. Raman, Research Scientist, from Google, Inc. The title of his keynote was Cloud Computing — Access Opportunity and Challenge. Dr. Raman spoke extensively about how cloud computing was the goal for the future, and that anyone who wasn’t headed toward that goal was going to be left behind. He also spent considerable time talking about how cloud computing could be the answer to the accessibility needs of our disabled population, in a way current software providers were not. Dr. Raman, blind since the age of 14, believes that accessibility should be, and will be built into future applications. Instead of a blind user having to purchase specialized (and expensive) software to work across all platforms and applications, the platforms and apps themselves will house the accessibility functions within them. This means that no special device or extra software will be required by anyone to use any application on any platform.

For a non-disabled person, it may not be clear what an advantage such innovation would be. Right now, a blind user is best equipped to do everything a sighted person can do only with their own laptop/computer/iPhone loaded with specialized (often expensive) software that allows them to “read” what they need to read. Imagine then, if the operating system, or the app being used, included adaptive technology built-in? That would mean that blind user could use anyone’s computer, anyone’s smart phone, and do what they needed to do. Imagine the freedom that this would bring. Expand that for low-vision users, for deaf users (built-in closed captioning on all multi-media), mobility impaired users, and virtually any other impairment, and you’ve got a whole new audience ready to use your apps.

And this was Dr. Raman’s message, the future he was seeing. He didn’t mention specifically a Google operating system at the time, but most of us have seen this as a potential future for a long time. Today we are told that a Google Chrome operating system will be released in late 2010. Featuring a much friendlier interface than most Linux installs, plus a decreased memory footprint and the expanded use of cloud computing, this has the potential to bust wide open access for a chunk of our population that is currently limited for many reasons. Accessibility software like Jaws for Windows or Zoomtext can cost a thousand dollars a pop; imagine getting that functionality built into the operating system or application being used.

Dr. Raman’s assertion that cloud computing is our future is pretty spot-on. Many of us are using cloud computing in substantial ways already, either through the use of Google Docs, through cloud storage like quanp and Dropbox, and organization systems like Microsoft OneNote. Why are we using them? Because they aren’t platform-dependent, and they are readily available to us as long as we have an Internet connection on the device we are using.

The Google Chrome operating system promises to be a huge leap towards cloud computing as a standard practice, something neither Apple nor Microsoft have truly embraced with any sort of gusto. It took the brains at Google to take this idea and make it real. They already made a huge leap with the release of the Android software for smartphones, and now for netbooks. The times, they are a’changing, and Google seems to be ahead of the curve. We’ve been asking for this for years; our mobile society no longer wants to be tethered to hardware, to desks, even to offices. And if the old standards no longer apply, then we must embrace new ones.

Dr. Raman was a dynamic and fascinating speaker. Many of his presentations and interviews are available online; simple searches should find them. I encourage everyone to take a listen (or read) what he has to say.

Posted in Information, google

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Can Verizon handle the Droid traffic?

Posted by Mike Dell at 2:05 AM on November 2, 2009

droid_does

Last month, we had the rollout of the iPhone MMS which was predicted to bring down the AT&T network in some areas. That didn’t happen. Now, this month, we will have the introduction of the most hyped new handset since the iphone, The Motorola Droid on the Verizon network. Will Verizon’s 3G network handle the new demand?

Verizon Director of data services for the Illinois-Wisconsin region said that Verizon is not expecting to take a hit to the network because of the Droid. I’m wondering just how many Droid handsets will be available when they launch on November 6th. See the full story over on Unwired View

It just so happens that my contract on my Verizon (Alltel) Blackberry is up and I’m due for a new phone. I’m going to take a wait an see attitude. I am leaning towards getting the Droid. I hope they have enough of them and they live up to the hype.

I will do a full review when / if I get the droid in the next couple of months. Until then, I’m watching!

Posted in Droid, ev-do, evdo, google, iPhone

Comments 1 Comment

Living Abroad and Calling Home for Pennies

Posted by Nolan at 12:46 AM on October 2, 2009

Recently my wife and I moved away from our home in the United States to do some humanitarian work in a developing country. Our internet connection is fairly consistent, though sometimes incredibly sluggish (usually around 256k both ways). In a previous post I wrote about the purchase of Majic Jack. The television sales unit that assigns a United States number and allows for unlimited calling for around $25/year. It has not disappointed for the most part and has allowed us to make calls back to our family even on the slow connection. But you can read that article for a review, so what about the rest of our calling system?

Our current set-up gives us one main phone number from the U.S.A. and allows us nearly unlimited calling for a total of about $75/year. Here is the order of services used.

Google Voice - This is our “One” number to rule them all. We have given our Google number to all of our friends and family. We then forward on the Google number to our Majic Jack and in-country cell phone. Don’t forget – Google Voice is free! The SMS feature works well, the transcribe voice mail needs some work, the notifications and ease of use are superb.
LocalPhone.com - A British company that allows you to assign a U.S.A. number to an international number (our in-country cell phone). So whenever Google forwards a call to the LocalPhone number my in-country cell phone rings. For our country the cost is less than 3.5 cents per minute. Not bad at all. Additionally, all incoming calls to cell phones in our country are free (the cell companies make their money on the outgoing calls).
Majic Jack - You have already read about this product and it’s cost.

So what about the performance? The lag/latency has been astoundingly good. Much better than using a land-line system ever was. Only once did it take so long to make the triple connection (Google to LocalPhone to my cell phone) that the person was directed to voicemail before I could answer. It is times like these that make me write, and fully mean, the overused phrase “Isn’t technology amazing?”

Tags: calling, Google Voice, localphone, majic jack, Phone

Posted in google

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Apple and Google have lost that lovin’ feeling

Posted by Nolan at 5:45 AM on October 1, 2009

It was a perfect relationship to start. The sharing of information, mutually beneficial partnerships, an alliance against the Dark Force of Microsoft. What a perfect marriage. Apple and Google. Google loved Apple products and Apple loved Googles information. That lovin’ feeling was oh so strong. And then something happened.

Google announces they are building an phone operating system (Android). Then Google announces the development of a desktop operating system. In a marriage that is like going from a single checkbook to independent checkbooks. How long before trust became an issue in this marriage? Not long. Soon anti-trust allegations of Google and Apple being too familiar in the corporate world were surfacing. Separation seemed an unavoidable possibility that soon became reality. Google’s CEO moved out of the board room at Apple. Trust is so important in a relationship. Evidently as friendly as these companies seemed to be, they were keeping many secrets from each other.

Right on the heals of the separation comes the new that Apple is rejecting Googles Latitude application from the iPhone because it infringed on Apple’s default program Maps. Isn’t Maps driven from Google’s database? We thought so, but perhaps not for long. You see the most recent sign that the divorce is inevitable came today. Apple has purchased Google’s lesser known mapping competitor Placebase.

Well, my timeline and details may not be exact but the rumors and stories of movie stars never are. This is feeling like a sad rerun of “John & Kate Plus Eight”. How long until Apple cuts Google out of the show? Indeed that lovin’ feeling is gone, gone, gone, oh oh ohhhhh.

Posted in Apple, Information, google

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Google can help, Google can hurt

Posted by Jeffrey Powers at 12:23 AM on September 28, 2009

There are many great things that Google has come out with in the last couple years. I have been all for what they accomplished, even if I don’t use everything. But the last couple ideas haven’t been warmly accepted by the IT populous.We’ll take a look at a few of the ideas, Good, bad and indifferent.

The Good

We’ll start with the one thing that Google has been doing right for years: Search. I remember when it came on the scene – I was pretty much torn between Metacrawler and Dogpile; I was never a Yahoo or MSN search user. Google just seemed to fit better. The later additions like images and news helped out a lot. Add to it the fact the default search on Firefox was Google. Even when i used IE I would switch it over.

Bing is a nice alternative nowadays, although I like the Google vs. Bing site. They do have to think of another name. google-vs-bing is a bit long and if you forget to put in dashes, you will not be on that site.

Gmail: I switched to Gmail a few years ago. I didn’t like the fact that Yahoo was holding my email hostage – even if it was a free service. Hotmail is no different; if I don’t pay the yearly fee, I don’t get to download my mail.

Gmail let me control my mail the way I wanted. It had some great features to connect with others and I really wanted my mail to come through in Thunderbird. Now with the iPhone, it just seems best to stay in the cloud, although i still download to TB for another way to archive.

Toolbar: I have to admit, I haven’t used the toolbar since the newer versions of browsers had the search feature added on the top. Why add another layer? It might just slow down the experience and clutter the screen.

I remember using the highlight tool a lot. Now with Firefox, I just use the highlight add-on. Works pretty well, especially if you are using webpages for reference – highlight the key points.

Maps: This has grown immensely in the last few years. It’s even changed the way I search maps. Satellite view, street view, even hybrid maps have enhanced my use.

I remember when first found out the map could be moved by click-dragging or re-sized by scrolling. I think I played with those features for hours. And yes, I tried to find my house when the Satellite feature first came out.

Labs: This was an impressive feature. No closed beta testing – the ability to put something out in public without giving to everyone. I could then use the “soon to be” features at my discretion.

Analytics: What can I say? I need help with my websites. Being able to have someone help me understand where problems lie is key. Having it come from the place that pretty much wrote the rules on how search is done is even better.

The Bad

SideWiki: Google’s recent choice of SideWiki is not a good one. It takes away from a website. As an administrator, I want comments on my site to be on my site. I don’t have sidewiki setup and I don’t want to confuse people as to where they comment on.

I also don’t like sites that steal my comments. Digg is a good example. While I don’t like Facebook or Twitter stealing comments for tweets, it does promote my brand a lot better with replies on posts.

Chrome Frame: As an IT professional, I hate this idea. It would be like having the Ford dealer put in Ford parts into your Chevy. Once they were done, they cannot really guarantee it’s not going to fail.

If your company runs IE6 for some reason at this point, they may have legitimate reasons to keep it that way. It’s not that a company doesn’t want you to have the latest version of software. It’s all about how it works with the other programs you have to use.

The Dead Pool: Jaiku, Video, Notebook and Dodgeball were all parts of Google that didn’t work out. However, they sometimes did enhance other areas with the technologies within. Notebook helped with Docs, for example.

Indifferent

Docs: I use Google Docs, but only for simple items. Documents I have to share that are not sensitive, for example. There is a lot of functionality in Office and OpenOffice that Google Docs hasn’t even touched. There are even some quirks in Docs that make it tougher to switch over.

Reader: I guess I just haven’t gotten the gist of this idea yet. I’ve used feed aggregation before, but sometimes I like to “Hunt” for news. When I used newsgator, I found that I was going back to the same items time and time again.

Blogger: I used Blogger when it first came over to Google. I remember that year I decided to give up meat for 40 days (a personal choice, although I did it during the same time as “Lent”). I used Blogger for my personal journal. And yes – this was before “Supersize Me” came out.

I like to control my own brand, though. Therefore, I moved off the platform. I also wasn’t serious about my Blogger profile. It ended up being pushed to the wayside and forgotten until it was removed by the system. I won’t get that data back.

Feedburner: There are a lot of people who live and breathe by this item. I personally don’t use it, although I do have my site up on Feedburner. You never know where a lead will come from.

YouTube: This was a great item, but then they put too many restrictions on the site. I don’t like being told what I can or can’t say or promote. Nonetheless, I know that being on YouTube is a powerful marketing tool. Therefore, certain items go on YouTube, like promoting a new show or item.

Chrome: The browser is an interesting one. It’s got a lot of great features, but as an IT pro, I cannot recommend it for business. It’s like I said with Frame – You may have to control the environment. Chrome doesn’t always give you choices on updates.

Book Search: Of course this is new to a lot of people. I still like the feel of a paperback while I sit in bed just before I fall asleep. I think there are a lot of people out there that are just like me, too. Digital books haven’t really found the happy medium yet – But when that someone comes out with the way to read a book online that is more inviting than the paper copy, the proverbial pendulum will swing.

There are a lot more products out there. It really is interesting how many pots Google has their hands in. It may someday get them in trouble with the FTC or EU, but for now, there are some great free alternatives to items you need to use.

Tags: Apple, Consumer, google, Information, internet, Microsoft, RSS, Software, Windows

Posted in Information, google

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Sidewiki: The Further Dispersing of Comments

Posted by KL Tech Muse at 10:00 AM on September 24, 2009

Today Google released their newest addition to the Google toolbar called Sidewiki, Sidewiki allows you to add to your Google Reader shared item from any site directly. I used it a couple of times today and it works, the comments that I made on SideWicki appeared under my Google Reader shared items. This being said I don’t think I will be using SideWiki. There are several reason for this, which I will now explain.

The first is it is only available at this time on Firefox and Internet Explorer, I am presently using mostly Chrome and Safari. This addition is not enough to make me switch to either Firefox or IE. Second, I already use Google Reader, which means anything I share there is already going to my shared item list. The third and most important reason is it takes away from on site comments. If I am on a site then I am going to put my comments directly on the site. Having a blog myself, I know how important comments are to a site creator. Comments should remain on a site, unless the site creator decides differently. There are already enough dispersing of comments off of the original site to social sharing sites like Twitter and Friendfeed. It is unecessary for Google to add to this dispersing , it just further diminishes the value of the originating site and adds nothing to Google Reader’s value.
It would be better if Google instead worked on a method, that would have any comment made on Google reader also appear the original site instead. SideWicki already permits sharing with Twitter and Facebook, how hard can it be to allow the share to go back to the original site. Yes, I know I could copy and paste the comment, but that is something that is easy to forget to do and shouldn’t be necessary. Until comments made on Sidewiki automatically appear on the original site I will not be using Google’s SideWiki.

Tags: google, sharing

Posted in application, google

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Here is hoping Apple loses

Posted by Nolan at 6:00 AM on August 10, 2009

A headline from a news article on AppleInsider, FCC investigates Apple, AT&T for Google Voice app rejection, reminded me of my secret wish. I wish Apple would lose some anti-competitive lawsuits. I don’t wish lawsuits on anyone, but sometimes it is the only way to shake a company loose. So here are the questions of a Mac fan boy:

1) How is it legal for Apple to refuse any stand alone 3rd party browsers or mail clients for the iPhone? Would Apple redo how they allow software to be sold for OS X now that most software is downloadable? An app store for OS X maybe so they could keep any programs from duplicating their own functionality? Hmm.

2) How can a company that has it’s OS foundation built on an open-source technology, be so stinking proprietary? “Hey everyone we think you all should adapt the open-standard mini display port! It will help all the consumers.” “No, you cannot install our open-source core Unix software on any hardware but a mac.” “No we will not license out the Magsafe power adapter to other companies for their products.” Why do that? It would only make you more money, while saving the electronics of the families you say you serve. Time to release the death grip.

I must admit that on days like this I really want Apple to lose an investigation. Not so that big government tells free businesses what to do, but so they begin to act fairly and openly. Turn the corner Apple, play it straight. Open up the company, release developers, license out the technology that people need.