New and Noteworthy: Apple triples earnings; now selling more iPods than Macs; Memory prices soar; more

Apple triples earnings; now selling more iPods than Macs Apple Computer Inc. on Wednesday posted a quarterly profit that more than tripled on strong sales of its iPod digital music players and sleek notebook computers. Reuters reports "For its second quarter ended March 27, Cupertino, California-based Apple said net income rose to $46 million, or 12 cents per share, from $14.0 million, or 4 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $1.91 billion from $1.48 billion. Apple said that it shipped 749,000 Macintosh computers during the quarter, up 5 percent from the year-ago quarter, and 807,000 of its popular iPod digital music players, an increase of 909 percent from the year-earlier period. More.

Memory prices soar Reuters reports that the price of memory chips is rising at its fastest rate in more than four years due to an unexpected global shortage. "The price rise of more than 70 percent this year is in sharp contrast to analysts' expectations at the end of 2003, when they forecast prices would slide as new production technology increased supply. [...] The price rise is related to at least two factors: Some manufacturers have run into problems using the latest production technology, and many have switched from making basic memory to flash memory for camera phones and digital cameras. More.

Consumer groups rally against hidden broadband service 'fees' BroadBandReports.com has an article about the proliferation of inexplicable 'fees' being tacked onto various service bills - including DSL and cable Internet services. "BellSouth recently added a 'regulatory cost recovery' fee of $2.97 to customer DSL bills. Letters informing customers of the change caused a long discussion over the tactic in our BellSouth forum, and now SBC has unveiled their own - much to the chagrin of consumer advocates. The fee is not assessed by the government, and consumer groups argue it's simply a rate hike in sheep's clothing. The biggest problem is that the fee isn't included in the cost that these companies are advertising. Critics charge this allows the companies to advertise one rate, charge another, and then blame the government when you get angry. We've been changing our own price comparisons to reflect this." More.

Previously on MacFixIt:

• Mac OS X type/creator, .extension "trojan horse" folder action limitations
• Mac OS X 10.3.3 (#18): More on printing problems, "page protect" errors
• Apple announces SuperDrive eMac at US$999
• Wireless broadband - not yet Mac OS X friendly

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