New & Noteworthy: WWDC pre-registration begins soon;
New & Noteworthy: WWDC pre-registration begins soon;
WWDC 2002 Registration begins soon Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will be held this year from May 6 - 10, 2002 at San Jose's Convention Center in San Jose, CA. WWDC pre-registration begins next week, (February 25), and will offer several incentive packages. For starters, those registering before April 15, 2002 pay $1,295 for the conference, a savings of $300 off the normal price of $1,595. For developers new to the Mac, Apple is offering a special Getting Started bundle (available until April 15), which includes attendance at WWDC 2002, a full-year Apple Developer Connection Select membership, a discount on one Apple Macintosh system (including 1 CPU and 1 monitor), and more, for $1,695.
Apple WebObjects 5.1, which was available via a download since last month for Select and Premier members, is now available on an upgrade CD from the Apple store. Changes in 5.1 include Enterprise Java Beans support, LDAP access via JNDO, better documentation, and more.
Apple slams door on Windows themes From CNet: "The Mac maker has asked Web site ThemeXP to stop offering for download two "desktop themes" that let computer owners customize the look of Windows XP so that it resembles the Mac OS X. " More.
Apple Adopts New Auditors Policy From Apple: "Apple has adopted a new auditor policy which bans its auditors from performing non-financial consulting, such as information technology consulting and internal audit services." More.
PCs Are Incorrect on TV From Wired: "In Fox's hit TV show, 24, starring Kiefer Sutherland, the villains use PCs running Microsoft Windows. The good guys, of course, use Macs." More.
Handspring to lower Visor's price From News.com: "Handspring plans to chop the price of two of its Visor models, a week after it cut the price on another device. The handheld maker said it will drop the price of its Visor Pro from $249 to $229 and cut the price of its entry-level Visor Neo from $199 to $169." More.
Coming Soon: Hollywood Versus the Internet From Cryptome.org: "Hollywood, along with other content companies, from book publishers to the music industry, has begun a campaign to stop you from ever being able to do such a thing -- even though you may have no intention of becoming a copyright "pirate." That campaign has pitted corporate giants like Disney and Fox against corporate giants like Microsoft and IBM, but the resulting war over the shape of future digital technology may end up with us computer users suffering the 'collateral damage.'" More.
Entertainment industry's copyright fight puts consumers in cross hairs From the San Jose Mercury News: "If the business people who rule the entertainment industry had been as powerful 25 years ago as they are today, you'd be breaking the law if you set your videocassette recorder to tape your favorite Olympic event for later viewing. The VCR, assuming the entertainment industry would have allowed a manufacturer to sell it, would not have a fast-forward button because it would let you skip through the commercials without viewing them." More.
Microsoft sues PC Connection From AP: "Microsoft has sued PC Connection of Merrimack, accusing the leading reseller of computers and related equipment of selling counterfeit Microsoft software. The civil suit was filed Tuesday in federal court in Concord. The charges are infringement of copyright and trademark." More.
Losing the war on patents From Salon: "Attempts to fix the intellectual property system from below are faltering. Is it time to bring in the feds?" More.
NextCard ad ban eats into sites' profits From News.com: "Last Friday, NextCard sent notices to 100,000 partner Web sites, saying it could no longer pay commissions for referral accounts and asked that all links to NextCard be removed. Those payouts were the bread and butter of many small dot-coms." More.
The Death of Digital Rights Management? From MIT Technology Review: "It's an e-business enigma. PC owners are looking for more and more of their entertainment online, as Napster and its subscription-based successors have shown. And many of the companies that own today's most popular songs, books and movies are eager to sell their content over the Internet-if only they can find a way that's both convenient for customers and profitable for copyright owners. Yet many of the 'digital rights management' companies that were founded to provide just such an online marketplace are shrinking or even disappearing from sight." More.
French Decision Prompts Questions About Free Speech and Cyberspace From the New York Times: "A little more than a year ago, the judge in the French case, Licra v. Yahoo, shook the mahogany desks of lawyers around the world when he reaffirmed an earlier ruling that Yahoo, based in Santa Clara, Calif., had violated French law by allowing French citizens to view auction sites displaying Nazi memorabilia." More.
Utah Getting Traffic 411 on 511 From Wired: "Justesen, a computer programmer who drives to work in downtown Salt Lake City from the southern suburb of Payson, Utah, dials 5-1-1 on his wireless phone as soon as he gets in his car. A pre-recorded operator then tells him about traffic conditions and provides alternative routes to the city if an accident were to occur. The 511 service in Utah, free to call from any phone, is completely voice-activated -- the first of its kind in the country." More.
Speedy Internet Spreads Slowly From the Washington Post: "The digital divide between those with high-speed Internet access and
those without is growing narrower, if only marginally, according to a recent federal study." More.
FCC Rules Seek High-Speed Shift From the Washington Post: "If adopted, the rules would hand large regional telephone companies a key victory: They would not be required to allow competitors to offer Internet access, e-mail and other services over the same souped-up telephone lines the regional carriers use to deliver high-speed service." More.
Record Labels' Answer to Napster Still Has Artists Feeling Bypassed From the New York Times: "In their bitter battles against Napster and other free music downloading services, record company executives have wielded one moral argument that has placed their position beyond self-interest: the fans take the music without proper permission and don't pay the artists a dime. Last December, the major record labels responded with two Internet services of their own where fans pay monthly fees to download songs. Under this arrangement, however, the performers still don't get a dime: for each song downloaded, they stand to get only a fraction of a cent, according to the calculations of disgruntled managers and lawyers." More.