New and Noteworthy: iPod Shuffle now available in five colors; Apple Ordered To Pay Legal Fees For Bloggers; more

iPod Shuffle now available in five colors Apple has announced that the iPod Shuffle is now available in blue, pink, green, orange and the original silver. THe iPod shuffle contains one gigabyte of flash memory, holds up to 240 songs and is available in all five colors for $79. More.

Apple Ordered To Pay Legal Fees For Bloggers WebProNews offers some insight on Apple's ordered $700,000 payment to recompense a collective of bloggers for legal fees spawned by a company lawsuit to squelch leaked product information. "This drama begins in 2004, when Mac fan sites AppleInsider and PowerPage reported the technological details about a product codenamed 'Asteroid.' Apple sought the identity of the sources who leaked the information by filing suit against the bloggers, and subpoenaed their email records from email service provider Nfox.com. The company claimed that the reports violated California's trade secret laws. [...] The case brought up several important questions related to the status of the blogosphere: Do bloggers qualify as journalists? Can blogs be considered news sites? Does a private company have the right to suspend the protection of journalistic sources guaranteed by the First Amendment? Though the court didn't actually qualify the bloggers as journalists, it was assumed that they were journalists for purposes of opinion, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who headed up the defense." More.

Meanwhile, ZDNet has a timeline of the events leading up to the ordered payment.

CBS: Critics say "Vista" An Apple Copycat Interviewing David Pogue, CBS presents a consensus that Microsoft's Vista -- shipping today to consumers -- borrows too heavily from Mac OS X. "It kinda like hits you between the eyes," says Pogue. "I don't mean to imply that Vista is nothing but copies from Apple, but there are some certain similarities that are unmistakable." More.

SplashCast debuts: media syndication for end-users A new service dubbed "SplashCast" debuted at DEMO 07.The new tool allows end-users to create 'channels' that combine audio, video, music, photos, text and RSS feeds. "These user-generated channels can be played and easily syndicated on any web site, blog, or social network page.  The service, which is free and completely web-based, allows content to be enjoyed on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS and Linux computers." More.

Previously on MacFixIt

• Flip4Mac vulnerability -- disabling Flip4Mac; official word from Telestream
• Security Update 2007-001 (#4): File sharing problems; Loss of peripheral recognition (including external drives); more
• AirPort Extreme Update 2007-001 (#3): Getting the update off your Mac (reverting) -- two methods; Dropouts and other issues

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